


Video Game Cruelty Potential

by Lovova



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: F/M, Fuck Or Die, M/M, Multi, Non-Consensual Voyeurism, Rape that is very rapey, Sensory Deprivation, Suicidal Thoughts, Switch Kaito, regardless of the good intentions behind it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:40:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 7
Words: 46,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24093748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lovova/pseuds/Lovova
Summary: TEMP HIATUS: Tsumugi Shirogane has access to one of the most in depth virtual reality game experiences a player could buy. And she just plainly couldn't see the point of holding back against the large collection of toys at her disposal...starting with her favorite 'Evil Supreme Leader' and his 'Hero of the stars' counterpart...~And~Kaito's been challenged to sleep with all of his classmates and no one is happy about it.
Relationships: Momota Kaito/ Everyone, Momota Kaito/Oma Kokichi
Comments: 82
Kudos: 361





	1. Kokichi & Kaito & The Press Machine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning!
> 
> This chapter is a an explicitly non-consensual sex scene between Kokichi and Kaito, which was written with the intention to disturb the reader. This whole fic is mostly porn with plot, but if you're here purely for the plot, or for one of the other sex scenes, this chapter does not need to be read to understand the plot. Just skip to the end of the chapter to read the end note for a summary of what happens inside the chapter, if you would rather do that!
> 
> Otherwise? Enjoy~

Kaito is above him, and he’s sorry. Kokichi knows this. He knows Kaito is sorry.

But Kokichi still wishes Kaito would die. Just stop. Just stop and let them both die.

He tells Kaito so. He tells him to stop. “Just let this end.” He says, but he doesn’t say it like that. Doesn’t sound so confident, so steadfast. The words come out rushed, and desperate, and choked. He pushes Kaito away from himself, and so Kaito grabs his wrists, and pushes both wrists above Kokichi’s head, and once they’re together, no matter how hard Kokichi fights for them not to be, Kaito just leaves one hand on those wrists, and Kokichi can’t push him away anymore.

So Kokichi screams instead. Shouts for Kaito to stop. Say’s he doesn’t want to do this. Doesn’t want to survive like this. Begs Kaito to reconsider.

Kaito says he’s sorry, and he keeps going.

Tsumugi smiles. Her finger on the button.

Maybe if Kaito could see it. Could see the reflection of themselves in the steel press above them. Kokichi’s looking so small beneath Kaito, whose back muscles, tense and sweating from trying to control Kokichi, makes him look evil. Monstrous. Kokichi weak. A victim. It was all wrong. All wrong. Kaito wasn’t meant to look like this. Kokichi wasn’t meant to _be_ this. If Kaito could just _see_ what Kokichi could see, he would realize this wasn’t worth it. Let her push the fucking button. Just let it happen!

She was going to do it anyway.

Kokichi was certain. He was more certain of this then had ever been of anything. Kaito was going to hurt him. He was going to hurt him, trying to save them, and he was going to be sorry as he did it. And it wouldn’t accomplish anything. She was going to push the button either way, Kai-chan! Look at her! Look at her face! She wasn’t going to stop. Maybe this would be okay if she was actually going to spare them…but she wasn’t.

He tells Kaito this. Breathless, angry, frightened tears running down his cheeks. Screams at him. Kaito stops, looking down at him, distressed. Listening. His whole body trembling as he tries to understand what Kokichi is saying to him…

“Tsk.” She says, pushing the button. “Made your choice, then?”

Kaito’s whole body shudders violently as the press roars to life above them. The metal slab slowly starting to lower down. “Stop, stop!” he screams at her, the same hopeless desperation in his words reflecting Kokichi’s earlier desperation, “I’m doing it! Turn it off, please, I’m doing it!”

“I’ll turn it off when you start again.” She says. Her voice matter of fact. Plain.

Kaito looks up at the press, his face ash, terrified as it comes down on them. Looks down at Kokichi, whose crying, conflicted by his own terror at this terrible death and his certainty that this was going to happen either way, just let it happen, just let this end. “I’m sorry.” Kaito says, and starts again, more urgently, more violent in his attempts to just get this done. Unable to give up hope that they can escape this. Unable to stop.

She pushes the button. The press comes to a stop. She watches, pleased, as Kaito pulls himself out of the last of his clothes, still holding Kokichi down, the two of them naked and writhing against each other, Kokichi trying to get himself away, Kaito fighting to hold him still. “Please,” Kaito whispers to him, scared of this next moment. Just as scared as Kokichi. “Can’t you just play along?”

“She’s going to kill us, she’s going to kill us.” Kokichi said, urgent, furious. How could Kaito not see it?! It was already too late. “This, all of this, is just leading up to the finale for her. We’re already dead!”

Kaito doesn’t feel dead. He feels alive, and afraid, and desperate for that life. He feels Kokichi’s heart racing like a jackhammer through the pulse in his wrist, pressed against Kaito’s grip. He can’t give up. Not while they still had a chance to get out of here. He can’t just pretend it was too late. “I’m sorry.” He says.

“I hate you.” Kokichi swears.

“I’m sorry,” he says again, licking the palm of his hand before reaching down, trying to stimulate himself. Trying to get his body to do what it needs to do right now. But its hard. It’s too hard. He tries closing his eyes, tries to block out Kokichi’s desperate tears, but that’s only worst. Hearing his grunts and growls, trying to pull away from Kaito’s grip. The insistent, angry ramblings of “I hate you” and “Stop” and “she’s going to do it anyway either way can’t you see it!?” that Kokichi keeps hissing at him. The little hiccups of breath as Kokichi’s tears strangled him.

Fuck how was he going to do this how could he possibly do this-

The press whirred back to life. “I’m doing it!” Kaito screamed, his body sick with fear, his whole frame trembling and curled over Kokichi, who seemed to be staring up at the press with grim expectation.

“I don’t see you doing anything.” Tsumugi said, pouting as she rested her cheek on her hand, “It’s just plain to see that you’re stalling, Kaito. I know Kokichi’s not making it easy, but you can’t save him, or yourself, by listening to him, you know?”

“Stop it, please, I’m trying.” Kaito said, his voice wet with his own tears, falling freely as the press lowered. “Please, I’m trying, please!”

Tsumugi sighed, turning if off. “I need to see progress, Kaito, or, plainly said? I’m just going to get bored with this.”

Kaito nodded, not trusting himself to speak. The press ceiling wasn’t touching him yet, but it was close. If he tries to lift himself up onto his knees, to sit up, he wouldn’t be able too. He was terrified of the idea of touching it. Of that metal against his skin, pushing him, crushing him, against Kokichi’s small frame, pressed under him. He needed to try harder. He needed to get them out of this.

“Don’t listen to her. She’s not bored. She wants to see us suffer. She’ll watch us suffer to the very end, and then she’ll press it anyw-“ Kokichi snarled as Kaito put a hand over his mouth, staring down at Kokichi, mind racing.

He was doing this wrong. If he was going to do this, he just needed to commit. Actually do it. It was gross, and repulsive, and Kaito couldn’t imagine being the kind of person who could actually get aroused in this situation…but he needed to start at least fucking _trying to_ , because someone who very much _could_ be aroused by this was debating crushing them to death right this very moment, and there was no way of getting out of this glass cage. When they had first woken up, they had tried everything. Ramming the glass, kicking it, checking its edges for screws or weakness.

Nothing. Just two men trapped in a press, and a madwoman at the button, with irrational demands and amusement on her face.

“I’m sorry. It’s going to be okay. I’m sorry.” Kaito said, hardening his heart against Kokichi’s furious stare, could feel Kokichi trying to get enough leverage to bite at his palm. Letting go of Kokichi’s mouth, moving quickly while the smaller boy immediately started screaming at him again, calling him an idiot, calling him a coward, Kaito grabbed the strap connected to Kokichi’s pant legs, letting go of Kokichi’s hands to focus on one wrist, ignoring Kokichi’s hits, his attempts to punch Kaito in the face, his desperate scratching against him in pursuit of tying one of the straps to Kokichi’s left wrist. Successfully tying it, Kaito, half panicked and half furious at the damage being done against him by Kokichi’s attack, took a second to punch Kokichi in the stomach, screaming at him to “Calm down!”.

As Kokichi struggled to get his breath back, Kaito took the other strap from the other pant leg, tying it to Kokichi’s other wrist, before forcing Kokichi’s right wrist behind his back, using the fact that the strap was still connected to the pants to pull Kokich’s arm out the other side of behind his back. Kokichi cursing and screaming at him, Kaito took the extra slack of both strips and tied them together, knotting and double knotting it. Then he moved the pants part of the straps underneath Kaito’s knee, putting his weight onto it before leaning away from Kokichi, brow sweating furiously, waiting to see if Kokichi could escape from the hastily put together binding.

As he thrashed and screamed, Kaito realized he couldn’t, and felt both sick and relieved. He then reached to grab from Kokichi’s bandanna and, re-thinking it, also grabbed his own belt from his own pants.

“Don’t you dare you fucking bastard don’t you dar-!” Kokichi screamed, Kaito first putting into his mouth the belt, not wanting Kokichi to grind his own teeth to dust in his fury. As Kokichi struggled to not bite down on the belt, Kaito clasped and tightened it. Then, to mute Kokichi’s curses through the leather of the belt, Kaito took Kokichi’s bandanna, wrapping it around Kokichi’s mouth, pulling that tight as well. Between the leather and the cloth, Kokichi’s words were muffled and disconnected, and, frankly, it was somehow easier to start at Kokichi’s furious hatred with half of his face hidden by a bandana now.

It didn’t do anything for Kokichi’s tears, but somehow Kaito suspected Tsumugi wouldn’t appreciate Kaito putting his jacket over Kokichi’s face. He hated there was a part of himself that understood, but he could guess not getting to see Kokichi’s despair would ruin whatever high the ultimate cosplayer was getting from this. But he didn't dare try it, in fear she would grow bored...start the machine again...

Hesitating, Kaito looked up at Tsumugi, trying to get a read from her. She was smiling, a pleased expression to her otherwise plain, stoic face. “Keep going.” She encouraged, “You’re on the right track, Kaito.”

Kaito felt a touch of relief at the encouragement. A part of him was worried Kokichi was right. That maybe it was too late to save them. But maybe if she enjoyed this enough, maybe it would be something she’d want to see again. If Kaito just tried to make this as good for her as possible…maybe she would reconsider the button. Maybe they could live.

Kaito turned his attention back on Kokichi. Even now, with Kokichi’s ability to fight back so limited, his ability to scream his hatred at Kaito essentially cut off, it was so hard to find something attractive about Kokichi laying beneath him, furious and desperate and crying. Kaito wanted to stop. He wanted to comfort him, tell him it would be okay. Tell him he wasn’t going to hurt him.

But those things wouldn’t be true, and the little liar wouldn’t believe them for a second. So Kaito just scowled and just…tried to focus on Kokichi’s body instead. Tried to ignore those desperate eyes, and focused on his skin (already colored with bruises that Kaito had given him), soft against Kaito’s fingers, the smell of him, slicked with sweat (because he was trembling so badly that his body was exhausting itself). Kaito ran his hands up and down Kokichi’s body, trying to arouse himself through this touch, tracing the curves of his hip bones, leaning down to kiss at Kokichi’s chest.

At the first kiss, Kokichi screeched as loud as he could through his binding, his whole body thrashing to throw him off.

“Damn it, calm down!” Kaito said, taking Kokichi’s shoulder’s and shaking him, only stopping when he heard a painful sounding thump, Kokichi’s head slamming against the bottom slab. Kaito had shook him too hard, but found himself relieved when Kokichi’s shouting turned to pained whimpers instead. Carefully touching the back of Kokichi’s head, Kaito was relieved that it just seemed to be a bump. “J-just calm down.” Kaito snarled, “I don’t _w_ _ant_ to hurt you. Stop making this worse!”

Kokichi was still trembling violently, and his eyes were still full of fury…but he wasn’t looking at Kaito anymore. He was staring up at the ceiling, glaring into his own eyes. Still.

“Well done, Kaito…” Tsumugi said, interested in this new development. “Keep going now…”

Kaito focused on Kokichi’s body again, trying to find something appealing in it, in any of this. Leaning down again, he tried kissing him again. Kokichi didn’t react either positively or negatively, apparently just determined to be still now. Perhaps mentally checking out.

Maybe for the best. Kaito kept going.

He kissed Kokichi’s chest. His collarbone. He thought about kissing Kokichi’s face, but couldn’t bring himself to do it, moving back down, chest, stomach, running his hands up and down Kokichi’s shivering sides. He thought about taking one of Kokichi’s nipples into his mouth, even made the move to go do so…but it was too strange, to try something so playful while he could still feel Kokichi shivering and shaking against him, every unexpected touch drawing a small sound of frustration or displeasure from Kokichi.

Pushing Kokichi’s body slightly forward, and crawling slightly backwards, arching his back to get the angle (fuck, fuck, he could feel the top of the press, he could _feel it_ ), taking Kokichi’s dick, limp, into his hands and, deciding that the easiest way to arouse himself would be to see Kokichi’s aroused first, Kaito took the smaller mans dick into his mouth.

Kokichi knee’d him in the chest. So Kaito raised his fist and brought it down, hard, on his abdomen, once, and then, mostly out of fury, did it again. Kokichi cried out against the gag, trying to curl his body away from the assault against it, but Kaito was holding his waist steady, until Kokichi stilled. His point proven, he got back to work, taking Kokichi’s dick into his mouth again.

Tsumugi giggled.

Kokichi’s dick didn’t respond for awhile, as Kaito spread his legs, running his tongue up and down the smaller man’s shaft, coating his tongue in spit, swallowing the tip into the front of his throat. It took a while, too long, but he could feel Kokichi harden against his tongue, though he kept going until he was stiff, the muscles in Kokichi’s legs tense and twitching, outside of his fearful shaking. It still wasn’t enough though, and he kept going until-

“n…nnn…” Kokichi whimpered, the sound clearly involuntary. Kaito stopped his attentions, looking up to see Kokichi no longer staring at himself up at the top of the press, but now glaring to the side, his face red, clearly still frustrated…but now arousal on his face.

Kaito could work with that.

“I hope you’re not planning to ride him.” Tsumugi sighed, sounding bored. “I know it’s a bad cliché by this point, but I just plainly prefer the bigger male on top. It just looks better, doesn’t it?”

“I-I’m just getting him comfortable.” Kaito called back, knowing even as he said it that it was a weird way to word it, ignoring the furious, clearly disbelieving snort coming from Kokichi, who closed his eyes, clearly trying to ignore both of them. Kaito took Kokichi’s dick in his hand and focused on Kokichi’s trembles, the tightening of his muscles under his attention. That was attractive. Kaito could get something out of that. He focused on that, playing with Kokichi’s arousal, listening for every uptick of breath, every involuntary little groan.

Kaito felt himself start to stiffen, and to encourage himself, he reached down to himself, taking his own dick into his hands, rubbing at his tip, trying to push himself as much and as quickly as he could. He just needed to get hard enough to fuck him. He just needed to fuck him well enough to arouse Tsumugi. He just needed to arouse her enough to make her want to keep them…

The press whirred to life.

“Fuck!” Kaito screamed, his heart jumping into his throat, feeling the irrational reaction of pulling Kokichi back under himself, shooting himself forward, as if he might somehow stop the press from killing the smaller man with his own body. “Stop! Stop! Please!”

The machine did stop, but fuck, fuck, it was so much more claustrophobic in here now. Kaito felt tears burning the back of his eyes, his whole body trembling with fear as he screamed, “Why!?”

“Just keeping things interesting.” She said pleasantly. “I won’t kill you if you fuck him, Kaito. But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun watching that look on both your faces every time I turn it back on.”

Kaito was losing his battle with his tears. They went down his cheeks in short, isolated bursts, falling against Kokichi’s face, who had gone incredibly still after the latest press down. While Kaito became more frantic, Kokichi seemed to be just becoming more complacent. Numb. Accepting his fate.

Kaito wanted to live so _badly_. He wanted Kokichi to live. He wanted to leave this room and spend the rest of his life apologizing to Kokichi. He was so, so scared he was never going to get the opportunity too.

It didn’t matter if he arched his back now or not. Kaito could feel the top of the press against his shoulders as Kaito started to shakily pull himself back together, grabbing Kokichi’s legs and putting them on Kaito’s shoulders. This caused Kokichi’s feet to touch the top of the press, and Kokichi’s whole body jerked feeling it, the trembling back in his body, even in his numb, disassociating state, unable to deny the physical presence of the press, the sense of impending doom it brought with it. As Kaito prepped himself, aligning his dick with Kokichi’s backside, he wondered in a sort of mad, idle way how he was going to stay hard during this. Kokichi was the picture of misery, and Kaito felt his stomach rolling with nausea and fear every few seconds. He wanted this to stop just as much as Kokichi did. He wanted this to be over. He didn't want to do this.

But...not enough to speed up their death. Not enough to not try. So, committed to this course of action, Kaito pushed himself inside of Kokichi, who closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, a pained, pitiful sound coming from the action.

It didn’t feel good. It didn’t feel good. That wasn’t even Kaito just rationalizing to himself. It hurt and took too much effort. Every push in felt like a fight with Kokichi’s skin, and while it didn’t necessarily hurt Kaito, he couldn’t stop thinking about how much it had to be hurting Kokichi, who gave little pained gasps every now and again. None of it sounded good. None of it felt good. Kaito wanted to look back at Tsumugi, to try to get a read of how this was working for her…but he was too afraid too. If he looked back and she looked bored, it was going to take away the last of his courage. He would crumble if he had gone this far and she was still going to crush them. He was so fucking scared.

Kaito pushed through. Just…in and out. After a little bit, something slick started to make the movement easier. Kaito knew that he wasn’t aroused enough for pre-cum to be coming out, and he hadn’t prepped Kokichi in any way…Kaito felt another round of nausea. Listening to Kokichi’s pained gasps become more frequent the more slick his dick became inside him. He could feel Kokichi’s hands, pinned beneath Kokichi’s back, still trying to put his fingers between Kaito’s dick and the edge of his hole, trying to slow or ease Kaito’s push into him, as hopeless as the action was. Knowing without looking what the issue was, Kaito closed his eyes. He could smell it even.

Kokichi bleeding against him.

Sorry, sorry, sorry-

Ah…there it was.

Kaito took a sharp breath. Okay…it was starting to feel good now. For the absolute worst reason, but it was. Kaito slowed his hips a little, readjusting now that he had some actual freedom of movement inside of Kokichi, leaning down over him and, in a dumb bid to appease, kissing Kokichi’s stomach, before rolling his hips against him, faster, harder.

“Move his face in my direction.” Tsumugi’s instructed, sounding breathless. “Make him open his eyes. He has such pretty eyes…”

Kokichi’s eyes were shut tight, his face away from Tsumugi. Not wanting to cause Kokichi any more discomfort, but feeling the press above him, with so little wiggle room left for any more of Tsumugi’s warning presses, Kaito reached over, grabbing Kokichi’s chin and forcing it the other way, saying, “Just open your eyes. We’ve taken it this far already. Just try, okay?”

Kokichi tried to say something through the gag, that Kaito couldn’t decipher, but based on the mocking laughter from deep in Kokichi’s throat, Kaito had to assume it was some version of ‘fuck you’.

So Kaito reached over and started to choke Kokichi.

Kokichi refused to be baited at first, just bracing for the attack and closing his eyes even tighter. But as Kaito’s grip tightened, Kokichi struggling to even swallow around the press of Kaito’s thumb and finger, small, choking sounds becoming more desperate as Kaito said, his voice dark. Desperate himself. “Open your eyes.”

Unable to hold out, Kokichi’s eyes fluttered open, looking at Kaito with sick, disgusted hatred. Kaito sighed, removing his hand, Kokichi’s breaths deep and greedy for the air, trying to breath around his gag. This time, his fear of not pleasing Tsumugi overriding his fear that he would see nothing but his death in her gaze, he looked over, to see if she was satisfied.

Her face was flushed red, watching them with a look of open adoration. It was…scary, and ugly, in context to this situation…but it was still probably the best sign Kaito could have hoped for, turning his attention back to Kokichi.

He rocked, back and forth, into Kokichi now, allowing himself, little by little, to just get lost in the sensation of it. He couldn’t really convince himself of it, but it almost sounded like the sounds of pain and frustration from Kokichi could be sounds of pleasure, Kaito filling him up, his arousal stiffening with every movement. It was hard to convince himself of this, since Kokichi’s dick didn’t seem like it could give less of a shit of about everything happening, filled but flopping uselessly against Kaito’s beating of Kokichi’s body. Annoyed at how inadequate it made Kaito feel, he grabbed Kokichi’s dick, rubbing him out as he moved against him, staring at Kokichi’s face, wanting to not be alone in this, not wanting to be the only one finding pleasure in this evil.

“nn-Hnnnn!” Kokichi groaned through his bindings, looking at Kaito for a moment before his eyes, still open as requested, but determined not to see any of this, focused on the middle distance of the room beyond the glass prison, his brow pulled together in obvious discomfort and distress, but his face red with need as his body began to tremble for new reasons. “Rghhh…hHNNNNN!”

Sorry sorry sorry

Just a little more...just a little more.

Sorry sorry sorry

Kaito could feel Kokichi orgasm into his hand, and that was all Kaito needed.

He thrust into him, losing himself into the rhythm of it, hungry for release. For a moment there, he actually forgot entirely about the press, about the madwoman at the button, even about Kokichi’s bound arms and furious, heartbroken tears as his halted breaths tried to breath through his own unwanted orgasm. The mantra of sorry, sorry, sorry rang through his head, but he couldn’t remember, for a moment, what he was sorry for. Kokichi felt so good. He felt so good…

“Ha…huh! Nnnnn!” Kaito groaned, cumming inside of the supreme leader, his thighs trembling in the act, his heart pounding. He looked up to see Kokichi, his haze of lust leaving him in the orgasm, and Kokichi’s eyes were still open, but tears were running down them, and instead of staring off into the middle distance, he was back to looking up at the top of the press, glaring at his own reflection.

Shame roiled through Kaito's stomach.

Kaito, wincing at seeing the fury in Kokichi’s gaze of himself, knowing he was the reason Kokichi was so fucking mad, grabbed his jacket and put his sleeve over Kokichi’s eyes, unable to look at it anymore. Kokichi hissed something in the back of his throat and tried to shake the jacket off, but couldn’t, instead laying there, trembling even more violently now, blind and bound and waiting for whatever was going to happen next.

The rush of the orgasm fading away, Kaito wondered if Kokichi was right. If they were about to die anyway. He wished there was a way he could keep Kokichi from knowing. To spare him from that last moment of hearing the machine whir to life again. Kaito wished there was a way he could keep himself from knowing. Kaito was so afraid.

Pulling away from Kokichi, Kaito steeled his courage and looked back at Tsumugi, trying to get a read of what was going through their captors head. Her hand was still on the button, which made Kaito’s blood run cold.

“Please…” Kaito said, pressing his hands against the glass, his whole body shaking from nerves and the cold sweat of his skin, his thighs coated with his own and Kokichi’s cum, so much a worrying shade of pink and red. A grotesque display of shame and desperation. “Please, if you kill us, we won’t get a chance to do that for you again. I-isn’t it more entertaining to keep us alive!?”

Kokichi had pulled himself onto his side, Kaito leaking out of him as he curled away from the two monsters, quiet and just waiting, shivering in the cold. All he kept thinking was ‘what a stupid, ugly way to die’. Furious that it had come to this. Repulsed by Kaito’s desperate pleading for their lives.

“It’s funny.” Tsumugi said, “There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to crush you, just because I know Kokichi’s expects it so much. I just plain hate feeding into his expectations. He really does think he’s far more clever then he is…though I supposed that’s my own fault.” She sighed, and Kokichi felt another shudder of repulsion, this time at her.

He had his…suspicions. About what all this was. About what it all meant. He and Kaito had just…woken up here. In this fucking box, in lieu of nothing. No memory of capture. Not even a clear memory of what either of them had been doing before this. No clear memory of what they had done the day before, or the day before that. It was like they had just… _started_ here. Knowing that there were others, that they were locked in a dome, who Tsumugi was, who each other were.

But no specific memories to explain _how_ they knew all that.

The fact that his suspicion was impossible didn’t matter. Their lack of concrete memories and Tsumugi’s casual tone told a story all its own. Maybe he was even _supposed_ to know. Certainly he didn’t have enough evidence to believe his theory so deeply, just by itself. It was crazy that it had even come to him in the first place. Maybe she had put the knowledge in him. Maybe she liked that Kaito, desperate to live, had no idea what he was, and Kokichi, desperate to die, knew that there was no escaping this kind of reality. She wasn’t concerned about the consequences of their deaths. Her lack of access to them anymore, or the other people in the domes ire, or never getting to see this exact scenario play out again. None of it would be a consequence for their deaths.

There wouldn’t _be_ any consequences for their deaths.

You couldn’t kill an AI.

“Kokichi wants to live.” Kaito deluded himself, “I want to live! Please, Tsumugi, if you let us out, we won’t tell anyone what happened. We’ll be quiet, we’ll be good! You can have us do that any time you want! I promise! Please, let us out!”

Tsumugi blushed, pushing her free hand into her jacket, feeling the perked nipples of her own breasts. “’ _We’ll be good_ ’…I do love that phrase. It’s like naughty children, pleading to their mother not to spank them. Or little siblings, begging their older sister not to tell…” Tsumugi sighed, moving her hand back out, not needing much. As someone who had grown up watching people she lusted after, never able to touch them, always out of reach... she had learned to need very little.

And yet, from these two… she could take so much. Anything she wanted, really…

Tsumugi smiled, and pushed the button.

“No! No, no! Please!” Kaito screamed, hitting against the glass, trying desperately to break it, while Kokichi, still afraid, still terrified, despite what he knew, or suspected he knew, curled his knees into himself, trembling, waiting for the pain. “You fucking bitch! Stop! Please!” Kaito screamed, forced to lay down, trying to lower himself, low enough, to not feel the cold metal death above him, praying it would be quick at the last bit, sorry, so sorry, sorry he had put Kokichi through that when it had amounted to nothing, _nothing_ , please be quick, _please be quick_ -

The press lowered down on them. Kaito felt it push against his back and closed his eyes, tears already blinding him anyway, bracing himself…

And the machine made a new, beeping sound…before the sound of steam releasing somewhere filled the room, and just like that, the press went back up. Kaito stared up at the rising ceiling, could see his own mad, desperate fear staring back at him in the shine of the metal, relief and dumb, stupid confusion hitting him in equal measures. What…

“If it senses something alive in the press, there’s an automatic shutdown.” Tsumugi explained, entirely pleased. Satisfied. “I could have over-ridden it, of course. It’d be just a matter of going into settings. But I like the idea of you two, as you are now, trying to live with everyone after this. I’m just plain curious what you’ll do. So good job, Kaito! You both get to live! You did it, hero!”

Laying in a puddle of his own sweat, tears, and cum, Kaito wondered if he was meant to actually feel good about this. He wondered how he was meant to feel good ever again… he looked over at Kokichi, still bound and gagged and blind, curled away from him, his back wet with Kaito’s cum as well, trembling. An automatic shutdown…could…could Kaito have avoided all this? No, she had said she could turn it off if she wanted…but she hadn’t beforehand already. Could Kaito have avoided this…

The press now high above them, reset into it’s default mode. Kaito reached out to press against the glass…only to realize with total, baffled confusion that it wasn’t there anymore. H…how!? Moving his arm around to make sure he wasn’t somehow….missing it!? But no. The glass that been so impenetrable, so impossible to escape, just seconds before…it was entirely gone??

Kaito felt tears run down his eyes, his poor, overwhelmed brain trying to understand, trying to make sense of how this was possible. Could the glass have slid down somewhere? Where? Had it fallen? He couldn’t see it, hadn’t heard it. How…Kaito looked up at Tsumugi, who just seemed interested in watching him, a knowing smirk on her face…

He was…he was terrified of her. He didn’t know what had just happened…he didn’t know how she could have possibly done that…but she had. And she had done it effortlessly. No tricks, no prep-work. She had wanted the glass there, so it was. She had wanted the glass gone, and it…it was…

“Are…” Kaito swallowed, trembling violently, “are you god?”

Tsumugi laughed at this, and Kaito could hear Kokichi growl angrily behind him. Wiping a pleased tear from her eye, she said, “Sure? Maybe. Perhaps I’m Atua. Wouldn’t that be a fun twist? Or…maybe I’m the devil? I think, thematically, that’s a little more fitting, don’t you think? You can think of me like that, if it makes it easier on you, Hero. Ah…yes. I think this will be fun, to leave you like this for awhile…”

Not sure what she meant, but now quickly wanting to escape the press, in case she meant literally leaving them here, somehow manifesting the glass again, Kaito put his legs off the press, reaching back for Kokichi, drawing him into his arms, not caring that Kokichi tried to pull himself away from him. He quickly pulled Kokichi out, the jacket falling off Kokichi’s eyes as he did, Kokichi’s glare more exhausted, but no less full of hatred. When Kaito stepped out, holding Kokichi as well as he could in his arms, his legs suddenly gave out from beneath him, in absolute terror as, just as soon as they had left its area of influence, the press slammed down behind them.

He dropped Kokichi, Kaito himself falling to the ground, violently shaking as he looked back at the press, wide eyed and on the verge of throwing up. So fast…it had gone down so f-fast…

He looked up at where the button was, and it was stunned to see Tsumugi was gone. The machine whirred, the ceiling of it raising again, resetting into its default mode again. The sheer sound of it going down…how quick it was…how much force it had…Kaito kept imagining himself and Kokichi underneath it, unable to escape…the sound it would have made…how much it would have hurt in that last moment…

Kaito vomited into his hands. He hadn’t wanted too. He couldn’t help it. He was so scared…

It took some time…but eventually Kaito got in a calming breath. Another deep breath. Breath Kaito…breath…

He was distracted by a kick to his side, looking over to Kokichi, who had managed to scoot himself to him, and was now kicking his side urgently, pulling at his bindings and shouting through his gag. He wanted to be released. Of course he did…Kaito felt bad he had forgotten.

Well…time to deal with this then…

Kaito turned Kokichi around, ignoring Kokichi’s displeased hisses at being maneuvered, working on the bindings around Kokichi’s wrist. Kaito hadn’t made a knot with the intention of being able to easily undo it in his haste, and it took some working to release it, Kaito half tempted to use his teeth at one point. But eventually he got it, and as soon as one wrist was lax, Kokichi shoved Kaito away from himself, scooting back as quickly as his spent, damaged body could move. Kokichi took his own gag off, fumbling desperately with the belt for only a moment before managing to get that off as well, taking deep, desperate breaths now that his airway was clear, one hand still tied to his pants but Kokichi otherwise free to move.

“What the **FUCK WAS THAT**!?” Kokichi screamed, grabbing his pants and using it to wipe down his face, to clear his eyes of some of the tears and the sweat that had built there. “ _ **HOW DARE YOU!?**_ ”

“I was trying to save our lives!” Kaito said, shame and fury fighting themselves inside of him, turning into something ugly and accusatory in his stomach, “Why the fuck did you fight me so hard!? You were going to get us killed!”

“So!? What, you think you’ve _saved us_!?” Kokichi demanded, a mad, twisted, mocking smile on his face, “Geez, thanks Mr. ‘We’ll do it whenever you want!’ Thanks for convincing her to save us for seconds! We can’t escape from here Kaito! We can’t stop her! Our best shot was getting her to be bored with us and instead you offered us on a SILVER PLATTER!!”

“…W-why can’t we fight back? I didn’t mean it! I was lying, Kokichi!” Kaito said, though that, in itself, was a lie. He had meant all of that, the desperate please to not tell, to be at her beck and call, when he had said it…but now, free and escaped from the press, he couldn’t imagine holding himself to that promise of ‘being good’, “We’ll tell the others what she did. We’ll fight back. I’ll kill her before I let her put us in a situation like that again!”

“God, you’re so stupid!” Kokichi said, trying to stand and, furious, that he couldn’t yet, his legs weak and wobbly from everything that had just happened, “You literally just asked her if she was FUCKING _**GOD**_! So I _know_ you know better then that! She didn’t have to do _anything_ to get us in that machine. She just wanted us there, so there we were! She wanted us to stay, so there the glass was! When she wanted us out? Boom, what do you know, it’s FUCKING GONE! We can’t fight something like that Kaito and you god damned know it!! AUUGH!!” Kokichi screamed, grabbing the belt and throwing it away from himself as far as he could, angry tears in his eyes as he screamed, “I can’t believe you ** _DID THAT TO ME_**! It was so **_POINTLESS_**!!”

Kaito winced at this, shame and doubt filling him with despair. His own eyes burning with tears, Kaito stammered out, “I..I-m sorry, okay? I’m sorry. I…I didn’t want to die! I didn’t want either of us to die! I wouldn’t have touched you if I had thought there was another way! I didn’t want to hurt you!”

“Well, fuck you!” Kokichi hissed, trying to get up again, this time managing an unstable wobble. “I don’t care what you wanted. You sure as fuck didn’t care what I wanted! God why can’t I get this shitty knot off!” Kokichi said, fighting with the strap his right wrist, his shaking hands desperately trying to pull at the knot. When Kaito stood up, reaching over to help him, Kokichi took several steps back, disbelief blatant on his face. “Are you serious!? Don’t touch me! Leave me alone!”

“I… I just want to…stop being an ass and let me help!” Kaito demanded, reaching out quicker then Kokichi could move away from him, making quicker work of the knot then Kokichi could with two hands, though he had to be quick, because Kokichi spent the whole time trying to yank away from him. Jerking at his wrist, Kaito shouted, “Stop moving!”

“I hate you, I hate you, I fucking hate you-“ Kokichi rambled, fear and repulsion running through him in waves at Kaito’s closeness, backing away from him as quickly as he could when the knot was finally undone, Kokichi grabbing his pants, going back for his shit, jacket, socks and shoes…well, no. The shoes were a lost cause now, crushed in the press. But the rest he gathered up, throwing his clothes back on, ignoring Kaito as the astronaut trainee quietly went collect his own clothes as well.

“I’m sorry-“ Kaito murmured-

“Be sorry then! The fuck do I care!?” Kokichi spat, his clothes back on, “Just don’t tell yourself you did me any favors! You _raped_ me to save your own miserable life! You fucking punched me and tied me down because I fought you so fucking hard, don’t convince yourself it wasn’t a rape! I was ready to let it end! You did this to me, not for me!”

Kaito opened his mouth…and couldn’t find anything to say. It was more complicated then that. It wasn’t fair to say this was Kaito’s fault, that he had done it only to save his own life. He had sincerely wanted to save them both…but he couldn’t argue the logic that it had been rape. Kokichi had wanted to take the death option over performing for Tsumugi’s amusement. Kaito had violently overruled him. There was no getting around that fact…

Kaito just put on his clothes, moving slowly, giving Kokichi time to walk away from him, to leave the hangar without Kaito following him closely behind. He couldn’t wait for long though, the cold, empty room of the hangar, with nothing but Kaito and the press that loomed over him filling Kaito with too much dread, too much fear to linger.

He followed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter summary for people who chose not to read:
> 
> Tsumugi traps Kokichi and Kaito in the hydraulic press using seemingly impossible, magical barriers, and threatens to kill them unless Kaito rapes Kokichi. Kokichi, who is aware that himself and Kaito are merely artificial intelligent toys for the player wearing a Tsumugi avatar, argues to let her kill them in hopes she will grow bored with them. Kaito, who believes they are real, follows through with the rape. It's a bad time for both of them, though they both survive, Tsumugi letting them go after Kokichi makes her feel defensive and foolish for being caught in an obvious lie.


	2. Kokichi & Kaito Fail to Negotiate

Tsumugi was in her lab, carefully putting together an outfit that, of course, wasn’t really _for_ anyone…but would really only fit Ryoma when it was done, so if he wasn’t willing to wear it and pose for some pictures, she was just plainly going to be annoyed. She had learned long ago that it wouldn’t pay to ask him beforehand to do it: when she asked in advance, everyone found a reason to deny her, or put it off indefinitely. It was much easier to just have it ready in the moment, and let them try to make excuses not to as she was putting it on them.

It was all quite fun though, so she didn’t mind so much.

As she was sewing, she heard the door to her lab open by itself. As she had locked it already, that really only meant one person-

“Tsumugi-chan!” Kokichi said cheerfully, throwing his arms around her shoulders.

Tsumugi was not the type to over-react. Or, really, react at all, and so she just stared curiously at Kokichi, who was peeking over her shoulder to see what she was doing, resting his entire weight on her back.

“Hello Kokichi.” She said, surprised but pleased by the visit. It wasn’t very often anyone came by on their own, and for all his troubling nature, Kokichi was admittedly one of her favorite classmates to fantasize outfits for. A truly beautiful shota was a rare thing to come by just out in the wild, and she had quite a few outfits already prepared with him in mind. Still, she was a little busy with Ryoma’s… “Do you need something from me? You could have knocked, I would have answered the door for you.”

“Sorry, I know its rude to just walk in,” Kokichi said, smiling brightly, the lockpicks still in his inner pockets, “But I had so much fun with Tsumugi-chan yesterday that all I could think about this morning was how much I wanted to come by to see you!”

“Yesterday?” Tsumugi asked. “At breakfast?”

Well, she supposed she had told a few interesting anime related jokes at the conversation in breakfast yesterday. Perhaps Kokichi was finally willing to admit his own love of anime to her, if even half the things he said were the references she thought they were. Still, beyond breakfast…had she seen Kokichi at all after that?

Kokichi stared at her with a bright, cheery look that, on anyone else, would have been glee…but for Kokichi, she knew it was more of his ‘default’ look. She felt like he was appraising her more then anything, and finally she said, a tad uncertainly, “Kokichi?”

He hopped off her back, putting his hands behind his head and giggling, “Sorry, I’m thinking of something else, actually. Hey, I ruined my shoes yesterday.” He said, “Squished them flat. And I don’t have a spare! Isn’t that stupid? This place gave me, like six versions of this outfit, but no shoes. Lame. Anyway, Tsumugi, could you make me a new pair of shoes?”

Tsumugi looked down to see that Kokichi was, in fact, just walking around in his socks. Tsk. “Well, that just plain won’t do, will it. You’re no Gonta. You’re going to end up cutting up your feet walking around here with just socks. Of course I’ll help you with that Kokichi. I can even make them look exactly the same. Or would you like to try something different?”

“The same is fine. Thank you so much Tsumugi-chan!” Kokichi said, quickly putting some space between them now as she stood up to go collect what she needed.

Kokichi watched her, that same blank, worthless smile painted onto him…

“So…what exactly is stopping us from just telling everyone?” Kokichi asked Tsumugi. “For realsies, I mean?”

“Telling everyone what, Kokichi?” Tsumugi asked, glancing over at him curiously for only a moment before returning to her work, “That you destroyed your shoes?”

“That you made Kaito rape me under threat of death.” Kokichi asked, watching her expression carefully…

Tsumugi hummed slightly to herself…before saying, “Sorry, what did you say, Kokichi? I’m afraid I just plain zoned out there for a moment.”

“You put us in the hydraulic press down in the hangar,” Kokichi tried again, watching her eyes, “And lied and lied and said you wouldn’t kill us, and then you decided the very last minute to make it not a lie, just to fuck with me and make Kaito feel all bad…ring any bells?”

“Hmmm?” Tsumugi said, clearly distracted. She finally asked, “How did you destroy your shoes, Kokichi? I can’t imagine what could flatten leather so much as to make it unwearable.”

“Are you messing with me now, or can you literally not hear me when I talk about it?” Kokichi mused.

“Talk about what?” Tsumugi asked.

-

He tried Shuichi next.

“Shuichi!” Kokichi said, grasping onto Shuichi’s arm, pulling him down to face him as Shuichi sputtered, asking Kokichi what he was doing, “I have a new game, that’s super duper important, okay!? I need you to listen, and then repeat to me what I say! Word for word!”

“Uh…sure, Kokichi.” Shuichi agreed, not sure where this was going but not seeing any harm in it, “Go ahead.”

“Word for word Shuichi, repeat after me…” Kokichi said, watching Shuichi’s eyes. He took a deep breath, just in case this ended up not going as he predicted and he would have to face the consequences of that…“Kaito raped me in the hydraulic press.”

Shuichi waited patiently.

Kokichi tried again. “Tsumugi tried to kill me and Kaito.”

Shuichi, brow furrowed, tried, “Um…word for word, Shuichi, repeat after me?”

Kokichi looked into Shuichi’s eyes intensely. Looking for conspiracy. For lies. For mocking sadism…and just saw the same somewhat shy, thoughtful guy that Shuichi’s proven himself to be, over and over again…in memories that Kokichi just straight up didn’t have. Kokichi knew he couldn’t trust his faith in Shuichi. Knew it was faith based on nothing but knowledge he had been instilled with, rather then learned on his own…but still. Kokichi didn’t think Shuichi was lying to him.

So Kokichi smiled. “You got it Shuichi! Wow, you’re so smart! Thanks for playing with me!” before letting go of Shuichi’s arm, trying the next one.

-

“You raped me in the hydraulic press.” Kokichi said, in the middle of breakfast, having sat himself down right across from Kaito while the man was trying to eat his food.

Kaito froze, his expression…stressed, as he looked around, waiting to see the reactions of the people around them. Himiko, who was sat right next to Kaito, was still just chewing on her pancake, Tenko chatting idly about whatever was coming to mind for her. To Kokichi’s right, Gonta simply gave Kokichi a pleasant smile before returning to his own food.

“…yeah…” Kaito said, clutching his fork tightly, “If you’re testing to see if they can hear it, I’ve kind of worked that one out already myself. I tried telling Maki, and then I tried telling Kaede. Neither of them understood what I was saying.”

“Why did you pick them?” Kokichi asked, still eyeing the other students, waiting to see if they were picking up on any of the conversation. What if they were only programmed to ignore certain keywords. It had to be something like that, but…then they should at least be reacting to the two conspiring over something clearly bothering them. But no one seemed to notice their hushed, tense conversation. “I tried Tsumugi and Shuichi first.”

“Tsumugi? Why the fuck would you walk up to her willingly!?” Kaito said, his outburst noticed by all of no one but Kokichi. “I’ve been avoiding her as much as I possibly can. I feel like I’m going to freak out if I get around her…”

“I don’t think they’re the same person.” Kokichi explained, before turning to Himiko. “Hey. Himiko, you raped a cactus, didn’t you?”

Himiko blushed bright red. “W-what!? Why would you-“

“Degenerate male! How dare you say something so foul to Himiko! Apologize now!” Tenko demanded.

“Sorry, sorry, I was thinking of a different Himiko that fucked a cactus. That was Kaito actually, right. You fucked a cactus?” Kokichi said, smiling brightly at Kaito, who just looked at him in open confusion.

“Oh, honestly, what is wrong with you? Why are you so weird!?” Tenko demanded, as Himiko nodded, agreeing with her. Gonta was looking at them all, concerned. “We’re trying to eat breakfast here!”

“Actually, my mistake. Kaito didn’t fuck a cactus. He fucked me!” Kokichi said cheerily.

No one’s expression changed, not even a hair, with the exception of Kaito, who stared miserably at his food. Tenko rolled her eyes. “Honestly, Kokichi, ‘fucked a cactus’? Grow up.”

Tenko and Himiko started grumbling to each other, and that seemed to be the end of the conversation. So…maybe something a little more nuanced then keywords then?

“So, yeah, I think the Tsumugi we usually see is like us. Part of this world. And there’s a different Tsumugi who did, ya know…all of that.” Kokichi said, waving his hands idly. “But just using her face. Maybe as some sort of avatar? Either that or she is a terrific liar. But I feel like I’d have been able to see it if she was. Also, the thing that everyone does with their eyes is pretty telling. Gotta imagine that’s hard to fake.” He stole some of Kaito’s food, and was amused to see him just quietly let him. Still feeling guilty, huh?

Good. Fuck him.

“…I still think I’d have a hard time being around her, even if I thought the one who did shit to us was someone pretending to be her.” Kaito muttered. Kokichi noted that he made no comment about Kokichi’s observation with the eyes. Interesting.

“Then I asked Shuichi because if someone was going to hear me say it, he’s a good guy whose fairly trustworthy and probably wouldn’t rape me just because someone asked him too.” Kokichi said, smiling pleasantly.

“That’s not what happened.” Kaito whispered, despite them having established by this point that it didn’t matter what they said, if it was on that particular topic. “She didn’t ‘ask me too’. She put us in a death trap and said it was the only way out. And guess what, we’re still here. So maybe you should just admit I was fucking right to do it.”

“I remember her saying she didn’t do it because she hated proving me right.” Kokichi said, stealing more food. Enjoying the look of frustration on his face. “So it sounds like I saved our lives, and you just raped me like a big, mean, fucking asshole~ Kai-chan!”

“What do you want from me. I thought you said you wanted me to leave you alone.” Kaito muttered.

“I was angry then. But now so much time has passed. A whole, what…maybe twenty hours? Time heals, Kai-chan.” Kokichi said, now stealing from Gonta’s plate, who just looked down at Kokichi curiously before, taking a fistful of his potato wedges and grabbing a napkin, he put the napkin down in front of Kokichi and gave him some of the potatoes wedges. “Thank you so much Gonta-chan!” Kokichi said, now only picking at the potatoes.

“And, let’s be honest, if I don’t seek you out myself, fake-Tsumugi is going to push us back together eventually. Hell, we could blink any second and end up back at the press, even. Up for round two of that yet?”

“She…she can’t do that…she can’t just will things to happen…”

Kokichi smacked the table, “Hey!” he said, getting everyone’s attention as he stepped onto his chair, grinning cheekily at the group, “Tsumugi put me and Kaito in a death trap, and Kaito raped me even though I asked him very nicely several times not too! I have the bruises and scratch marks even! Look at this shit!”

He took off his shirt, showing off the bruise on his stomach, the scratches and bruises on his arm. Everyone was looking at him, and Kokichi said, “Well! Anyone have anything to say about that!?”

He stared at their eyes and…there it was. That little fuzziness, in their pupils. As obvious as the sun, once you knew when to look for it. Just for a moment, something changing in them…and then they looked away from him, all going back to their conversation and meals.

Sitting back down, putting his shirt back on, Kokichi said, “Feels a little bit like she can make whatever she feels like happen to us, Kaito. If you wanna try any other experiments to test this theory to death, please, go for it, let me know how it ends up.”

“Can you not give me any slack here?” Kaito growled, his hands trembling, having had to look away at the damage he had caused. “This wasn’t my fault.”

“Maybe.” Kokichi said, the smile on his face suddenly tired. Annoyed. “Maybe it wasn’t your fault. But ya know…somehow, I can’t help but feel, if we were to end up back under the press…or in some sort of, I don’t know…room running out of oxygen? Lava rising up? Literally just had guns to our heads? Whatever dumb scenario she could get her rocks off too, I think, you and I would still make the same choices. I’d choose to stop playing the game, to let this end, and you would keep fucking bending over backwards, and bending me over backwards, to please her. Which is just going to cause both of us all sorts of misery, so…we need to talk about what we’ll do if it does happen again.”

“…I don’t want to talk about this right now.”

“I vote, let her kill us.” Kokichi said.

Kaito said nothing, just gripping his fists. Frustrated.

“Kaitoooo~” Kokichi said, flicking a potato-wedge at him, “Talk to me. You’re the one who believes in cooperation so much. Cooperate with me! We need to discuss this. I say we let her kill us.”

“I can’t do that.” Kaito admitted. “I can’t. I can’t even understand how you can. Not when there’s a chance to live.”

“What if I said…” Kokichi said, watching Kaito’s eyes, “That I didn’t think you and I really existed, and that if we died, two new versions of us would pop right up? So…maybe the versions of us we are right now die, but these versions suck, so who cares, and ultimately we live on? Like a video game? And so letting us die and letting fake Tsumugi get bored with us is actually a totally reasonable option and not even, like, _that_ suicidal?”

…there it was. The fuzzy look. Kokichi had guessed right. He was ‘born’ with the knowledge of what they were, but fake-Tsumugi didn’t want him sharing it with the others. Not even his ‘partner’ in all this.

He wondered if anyone else was going through a similar crisis. If anyone else was being tortured, but Kokichi couldn’t see it, because some program in his head wouldn’t allow it. His sense of ego couldn’t help but make him doubt it. It was too hard to think of the program that was effecting everyone else effecting him…after all, why give him the knowledge of their universe at all, if not to leave him alone as the only person who could really see?

Whatever. He’d have to put more thought into it later. For now, he sighed, as Kaito entirely failed to comment on anything he just said. “Look, I have my reasons, okay? If what happened yesterday is what it’s going to take for us to survive, I don’t want to live like that. There’s no happy ending for us here, Kaito. The best we can do is decide how we’d prefer to go out.”

Kaito seemed to think about this…before shaking his head. “I can’t. I can’t agree to that. I’m sorry Kokichi. There has to be a way out of this, and if we let ourselves die, we’ll never figure out what it is.”

“Well, then for both our sakes, here’s hoping the next time she demands something of us, I get to pick if we actually do it or not.” Kokichi said, a big smile on his face, “Then I can just end it for the both of us. Though, fake-Tsumugi probably knows I’d pick the smart option…so she’ll probably keep giving your big dumb ass the advantage. So that we both get screwed~!” he said, laughing cheerily. “Woooow! That sucks!”

“I’m sorry-“

“And I still don’t care.” Kokichi said, rolling his eyes, that pleased smile plastered onto his face, “And I will never, ever, ever care Kaito. So save it. You didn’t say, by the way.”

“…Say what?” Kaito asked, sounding increasingly exhausted.

“Why you went to Maki and Kaede first.”

“…Kaede’s brave. If she found out what was happening, she wouldn’t hesitate to help, and help immediately. What Tsumugi could do wouldn’t scare her off.” Kaito said, no longer eating his food “And Maki’s strong. Really strong. So-“

“You thought she could protect us? That’s cute.” Kokichi said, trading Kaito’s plate for food for the napkin Gonta gave him. Kaito let him. “You have so much faith in the pretty women in your life Kai-chan. It’s so refreshing!”

“I can’t even talk to you. You’re impossible.” Kaito growled, eating the potato wedges aggressively, since what he actually wanted to do was punch Kokichi in the face…but even the thought of doing it brought back recent, shitty memories, ones that made Kaito’s stomach twist in renewed shame.

Still. This didn’t mean Kokichi had to be such a little shit about everything. “Maybe I’m not sorry after all. I made the best choice I could in the moment, and I’ll make the best choice I can if-“

“-when.” Kokichi cheerily corrected.

“-if it ever happens again. I’m not going to feel like the bad guy for trying to save our lives.”

“Nee-heehee.” Kokichi giggled, “Ya know, it really does bother me to watch people lie to themselves. Lying to other people is soooo much more fun! Way more useful, too.”

Kaito couldn’t really tell if that last part was meant to be a dig at him or not, but he didn’t say anything as Kokichi reached over, took his napkin of potato wedges (for all the few that were left) and took it for himself, giving Kaito a sweet grin and a waive before running out of the cafeteria.

“Kokichi in good mood.” Gonta observed.

Kaito just sighed.


	3. Kaito's Super Sexy & Totally Fun Challenge

Ugh…she should have killed them.

As the person who shared a face with Tsumugi sighed, leaning back in her desk chair, her VR headset put to side for now, she glared at the ceiling, just…frustrated with herself. She had let the little shit get to her. It was always so frustrating, playing with him and the small pseudo-villain always acting like he knew what was going on, had predicted her next move before she had even thought of it. She -knew- he couldn’t, was familiar enough with his coding to know that he was flying by the seat of his pants second to second…that was _why_ he was her favorite. That crazy, entirely un-earned self confidence. His reckless lack of self-preservation that accidentally lead into brilliant moves... he was impossible to predict from a sane person’s perspective.

But _fuck_ it was way more fun to watch other people deal with that madness then try to deal with it herself.

Now she was committed to this particular experiment for who knew how long…

She supposed she could just…delete them. Re-start Kaito and Kokichi’s characters from zero, erase the whole memory of the incident and, for fucks sake, delete that stupid self-aware mod from Kokichi that DataSlut69 had given her.

But as _frustrating_ as it was when messing with the little shit was hard, it was so painfully _dull_ when it was easy. And for all his madness and self confidence and intelligence, the person who shared a face with Tsumugi had long learned how to dissect and rip apart Default_KokichiOma. Once you understood his breaking points, it was hard not to use them on the default model when he started getting too uppity…which was _constantly_.

She sighed again…before deciding she should take her griping straight to the source. Opening up Discord, she went onto the chat tab “Gilded Cage”, where she saw a good number of her friends were already on, though they didn’t seem to actually be chatting about anything. Looking through the list of names, she spotted her source of ire, and started typing.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

Lilac.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

Lilac!

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

He did it again.

**Lilac Lie**

Errr….how do you mean?

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

Your piece of shit gremlin got into my head again, is how I mean.

**Lilac Lie**

lol…I mean, he does do that…

**PianoFreak**

That’s so funny to me. My Kokichi’s been a total sweetheart lately. What’d he do this time?

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

He called me out on a lie while I was busy torturing Kaito.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

So I doubled down and now I’ve got a traumatized version of both of them just running around in my world.

**Lilac Lie**

…so…just kill them?

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

That would feel like such a cop-out now!

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

I just plain feel like he’d win if I did that, since that’s exactly what he said I’d do.

**PianoFreak**

What’s the exact scenario here? Can we see?

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

I recorded it, of course, but it’s not edited or anything like that.

**Lilac Lie**

Is it long?

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

I’ll just send you the last bit of it.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

_Kaito &KokichiHydPress_EXPORTED _

**PIANOFREAK**

Oh my god holy shit (I mean this in the best way possible) OH MY GOD HOLY SHIT.

**PIANOFREAK**

MASTERMIND, Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK XD

**Lilac Lie**

h.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

???

**Lilac Lie**

Sorry, just mean, like…you had me literally shaking wtf

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

I’ll take that as a compliment ^_^

**ASTROHERO**

Pffff, HOLY SHIT!

**ASTROHERO**

That’s fucked, Mastermind!!!

**ASTROHERO**

Why you gotta do that to my guy??

**Lilac Lie**

Hey astro… you’ve been gone a minute.

**ASTROHERO**

Sup!!! Yeah, Sorry Lilac! Fucking uni, right??

**ASTROHERO**

Where the fuck is everyone?? I see like eight people logged in who ain’t said shit all day!

**Lilac Lie**

Probably have us in a different tab.

**TennisMurderOnMain**

I’m here. Just lurking. Hey Astro.

**ASTROHERO**

Sup Main!!

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

What did you think of the video, Main?

**TennisMuderOnMain**

I don’t know if I should praise you, or call the police.

**TennisMurderOnMain**

Probably both.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

^_^ thank you.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

Still. Maybe I should just delete them.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

I just plain don’t know where to take it this point.

**PianoFreak**

I think you should stick with these versions. You’re always good at escalating, Mastermind. See how far you can push them before they just totally lose it, you know?

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

Thanks PF. Does anyone have any suggestions?

**Lilac Lie**

No new ideas for Kokichi, personally… everyone’s done him to death by this point… I liked seeing Kaito like that though…

**ASTROHERO**

God damn, Lilac, seriously bro!? I mean no shit, my boys hot, but that shit was rough to watch! You’re real sick Masterbitch!

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

Thank you ^_^

**PianoFreak**

None of us have done a whole lot with Kaito, have we? It’s kind of tough to torture him. I always feel like an asshole afterwards.

**PianoFreak**

It’s like kicking a particularly big puppy.

**TennisMurderonMain**

I always feel the same way about Himiko and Gonta too. It just feels weird.

**No, That’s Wrong!**

I got some ideas, Mastermind.

**TennisMurderonMain**

I’m out.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

Hello, Wrong.

**PianoFreak**

Oh, shoot, sorry guys, gotta run!

**ASTROHERO**

Me too, Uni shit calling again, gonna bounce. Later Lilac!!

**Lilac Liar**

…bye.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

What’s your ideas, Wrong?

**No, That’s Wrong!**

Up to me logging into your end of the server and hanging out a bit?

**No, That’s Wrong!**

Lilac, you should come too.

**Lilac Liar**

…that’s alright. I’m playing in my own world right now…thanks.

**QuitePlainlyTheMASTERMIND**

Certainly. You need the password again?

**No, That’s Wrong!**

No, thanks, I’ve still got it.

**No, That’s Wrong!**

See you soon =)

-

Kokichi had gone to bed with a knife.

The truth was, he knew he should just use it on himself now. He meant it when he told Kaito that there wasn’t a happy ending in this scenario, and…it wasn’t _really_ a suicide, when there was going to be a brand new you there after your were gone, without the fear or the anger or the memory. It would make sense to just turn the knife on himself and let the new Kokichi deal with this bullshit.

… but even with this totally reasonable argument in his head, Kokichi put the knife in the hem of his pants, pressing its relatively safe flat side against his leg, to be used as a possible last chance to get himself out of whatever new scenario fake-Tsumugi whisked him away too. Maybe he’d be kind and try to take Kaito out before he left too, sparing the idiot from whatever frustrating position that would leave him in with their shitty ‘God’.

Or maybe he wouldn’t. Fuck Kaito.

When he woke up the next morning, the toy bear cheerfully letting its ‘students’ know that a new day had begun, Kokichi had breathed deeply, realizing he had gone to bed seriously believing that he would wake up somewhere else. He had gone through a few nightmares that night that, in the in between moments of wake and sleep, before the nightmares for the most part completely erased themselves from his mind, he was struggling to differentiate between what had actually happened yesterday and what he had dreamt.

He _had_ talked to Tsumugi. That was true. But she _hadn’t_ taken his face into her hands, which had somehow gotten grotesquely big, and laughed and laughed and then taken her scissors and-

Kokichi took a breath, feeling up to his eye. No wound. Yeah. Obviously. She hadn’t done that. That hadn’t happened.

As he felt the tension leave his shoulders, he decided he’d actually face the day. He got up, putting on the rest of his clothes, deciding to skip the shower. He was tired and grumpy and honestly didn’t even know what he was getting up for. It just felt like the next thing to do.

When he finally got outside, there was a pretty unusual site. Almost all of his fellow ‘classmates’ were herded around one spot, instead of heading to breakfast in their little groups of two or threes. They were all whispering to each other, the sounds urgent and worried, something clearly up. They were around Kaito’s door.

“Hey! Good morning, everybody!” Kokichi greeted, a bright smile on his face as a few of his classmates looked up at him, something…concerned. In their faces at seeing him. What was happening? He beamed brighter, heading downstairs (Kaito's room was downstairs. Something about that felt off to Kokichi, but not enough to think about it too hard) two steps at a time as he asked, “Hey, hey! What’s going on!? You guys looking at something cool??”

“Good morning, Kokichi.” Kirumi said politely, glancing over at the smaller man with concern as she said, “Um…Kokichi, do you have any idea why-“

“Hey! Shitty-Shota!” Miu said from the front of the crowd, pushing Korekiyu aside to get a good look at Kokichi, the tall, slender man glaring at her as shouted, “What the fuck is this all about, huh!? What’d you and Kaito do!?”

Kokichi’s smile twitched, ever so slightly. “What are we talking about, exactly?” Kokichi asked, ducking in between Miu and Gonta, so he could actually get a look at what they were all looking at.

On Kaito’s door was a white board, screwed into the wood itself. There was a list of all the students names written onto the board, each in their own corresponding color, looking like it was written in their own handwriting, even. Kokichi’s name, written in small, condensed dark purple, was at the bottom of the list, and was already lined out by a thick, black line.

At the top of the list, in gaudy, all capital comic sans, it read:

**KAITO’S FUCK BUCKET LIST CHALLENGE!!**

…tsk.

“Well, that’s in bad taste.” Kokichi muttered, looking around at the other students, who were all looking down at him, waiting for an explanation. “What?” He asked, genuinely confused, “Why should I know what this is? I didn’t put it up.”

“Your names been crossed out.” Rantaro pointed out, a gentleness in the reminder. Perhaps realizing that this could mean something profoundly uncomfortable for just… everyone to know about now. “And Kaito refuses to come out of his room and talk to us. So… _do_ you know what this is about?”

Kokichi thought about trying the whole ‘Kaito raped me’ test again…but couldn’t bring himself to do it. It felt like the rules had just changed. Like maybe if he said it, they’d all actually hear it this time…and Kokichi didn’t actually want that, when all was said and done. So he just shrugged, his wide smile giving nothing away as he said, “I dunno. Maybe it means I don’t have to participate in whatever weird fuck thing you all are doing now? Nee-heehee! That’s great! Aren’t I lucky?”

Himiko lowered her hat, a disturbed look on her face as she said, “Are…we all participating in something now…?”

“It seems likely that we are, yes.” Kiibo said, staring curiously up at the board, as if it might give him more information the longer he looked at it. “The line out of Kokichi’s name implies that this is some sort of check-list, doesn’t it?”

“Then why is Kokichi already lined out?” Maki said, glaring at the smaller man suspiciously, murder radiating off of her as she said, “And why won’t Kaito talk to us?”

“I can explain all that!” said a bright, high voice.

Just in front of the board, somehow just… appearing, despite coming from nowhere, Monokuma showed up. Waving enthusiastically at all his poor, confused pupils, he said cheerfully, “It’s me! Monokuma! It’s about time I made an appearance, huh?”

“What do you mean? We see you all the time…” Tsumugi said, her brow furrowing slightly in sudden confusion as she added, “…don’t we?”

“Don’t worry about it! You all should have called for me from the beginning!” the headmaster scolded, kicking the door suddenly as he shouted, “I THOUGHT someone was going to be a RESPONSIBLE student and just tell you himself, but I guess if he’s going to hide away like a sobbing brat, I’ll just fill you in on the new, super-fun, super-horny University Level Challenge for you all!”

“Super fun?” Himiko drawled, doubt clearly in her voice.

“Super…horny?” Gonta mirrored, sounding distinctly uncomfortable.

“…University level?” Shuichi asked, something about that sounding…weirdly off to the University-Level Detective. That…was that right?

“Yeah! A Super University Level Challenge for Super University Level Ultimate’s! Which you all are! Duh!” Monokuma said, a happy blush on his face as he continued, “To really help all you twenty through twenty-five year old age range university students to really bond and come together as a group in a fun, not-creepy in a pseudo-pedophilic way for those watching,” Monokuma said, glancing at the fourth wall, “I’ve set up a challenge to Kaito Momota to really inspire you all to come together as a community for the benefit of the one!”

“I feel like you just said quite a few words without actually…telling us anything new.” Korekiyu pointed out, crossing his slender arms together as he glared down at the small mascot.

“Hey! Lipsticks! How’s your sister doing!?” Monokuma asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

The masked man’s eyes widened in surprise as he said, uncertainly, “…fine? She was in recovery last I spoke to her fiancé. Why?” he asked, full of concern now.

“No reason, no reason. Just wanted to clear up some of the more uncomfortable aspects of the game. University Level Ultimate, Korekiyu, twenty-three years old, is just the normal kind of fucking weirdo who's way too into his fetish's and, I don't know, history and people and shit. Anything I’m forgetting? We all good!? Everyone having a good time now!? GREAT!!” Monokuma laughed, each laughter coming out like a small popping sound before he suddenly stopped, looking at all of them as he said, “Look, it’s obvious right? Says it on the board. Kaito’s gotta fuck all of ya to finish his challenge. That’s it.”

There was a moment of stunned silence, before a mix of reactions came from the crowd.

“Unacceptable! I refuse!” Tenko called out, bringing her arms up in a fighting pose, as if Kaito might just appear any minute to throw himself onto her.

“W-why Kaito?” Shuichi gapped, his face bright red at the very idea, his cap slightly askew.

Kaede, right beside him, said, blanched as she said, “Yeah, that’s so uncomfortable! Kaito’s our friend, you can’t ask us to do that!”

“It…does seem like an awful lot of pressure to put onto him.” Ryoma pointed out, chewing on his unlit cigarette. “Is there some sort of time limit or…?”

Maki and Kokichi were entirely silent. Kokichi’s mouth a thin, pressed line. Maki _radiating_ a violent energy.

“He’s hot! Way hotter than all you other freaks. Seriously, some of the faces you weirdoes make…” the bear shook his head, clearly disappointed with the assortment of Husbandos and Waifu’s before him, “What more reason do I need then that to wanna see him fuck a lot?” Monokuma asked, chuckling at their reactions. “And nope. No time limit. Well, kind of. He _does_ have to make progress every day. If it hits midnight and he’s not checked off a new person for the night, then he just…goes away for awhile,” he shrugged. Clearly not thinking it was a big deal.

"...goes away for a while?" Korekiyo echoed, a concerned look on his face.

“Oh!” Monokuma continued, turning back to the board and, a white board eraser now in hand, he wiped Kokichi’s name off the bottom of the list, writing in Kokichi’s name again in his own large, Monokuma handwriting, “And I was thinking about it, and honestly, lining out our Evil Supreme Leader this early feels like it wasn’t earned! After all, what they did was before the challenge even started, so of course it shouldn’t count! So there you go, Kokichi! You get to play too!”

Kokichi’s face was carefully blank for a moment…before he hummed and giggled, putting his hands behind his bed as he said, “Yay! If everyone gets to play, I wouldn’t want to be the only one left out! This is going to be so much fun, you guys! Hey! How long do you think we can keep Kaito from finishing his challenge, huh!? I’m betting For~ever!”

“Is that really alright?” Kiibo murmured, worried “You said Kaito’s taken away when he doesn’t make progress. Where? For how long?”

“Will he be hurt?” Maki asked, voice blank. Stoic.

“No, no, no.” Monokuma shook his head, looking shocked at the very idea, “This is meant to be a FUN challenge. No pain, no pain. He just goes away for awhile, what can I tell ya? And its random how long he’s gone. That’s part of the challenge, you see! But no, no harm will come to our dear Luminary Astronaut!”

“Well…that sound good.” Gonta said, clearly confused if it actually was, “Right, everyone? Challenge not need completion if Kaito not punished.”

“It can’t be that easy.” Rantaro sighed, “Does anything happen to any of us if he doesn’t complete his challenge?”

“Nope!” Monokuma said, “You’ll all be fine and allowed to continue living your days in paradise!”

“Whose idea of paradise is an abandoned university in a giant dome with no exit?” Himiko muttered.

“And he won’t be hurt?” Shuichi asked, just as doubtful as everyone else. “Really? You give us your word?”

“I give you my word! No physical harm will befall Kaito Momota for failing the challenge!”

Everyone noted the ‘physical’ part…but honestly, what more could they say by this point? They all stood there, in various levels of discomfort at the reality of this new challenge, each wondering personally how much they were willing to contribute. It felt like a lot to ask of anyone...

Finally, Miu hmphed, squared her shoulders, walked past Monokuma and knocked, hard, on Kaito’s door. “Hey! Limp-dick astro-bitch! You wanna just get this over with now!? Fucking orgy it up in here!?”

“Miu!” Gonta gasped, “No!”

“Miu, please, that is entirely-“ Kirumi started to scold, while beside her Kokichi just started to cackle.

“What?! He needs to get it done, you fucking virgins! We should just do it all at once so it's not fucking weird!” Miu argued, staring down a sea of increasingly unwilling individuals, shocked by the casualness of her idea.

“I’m gonna have a hard enough time getting my head around doing it with Kaito. Doing it as a group is a hard no.” Ryoma said, bringing his hat low over his eyes, “Maybe that’s not fair on Kaito, to say he’s gotta do it with everyone and then refuse myself… but there is it.”

“None of this if fair on anyone. This is totally not cool.” Kaede sighed, looking over to glare at Monokuma, who just smiled cheerfully at her and shrugged.

“Hey, what can I say! I’m having a hard time feeling guilty over making a strong, healthy young man fuck all his friends. Call me a cold, heartless tyrant, if you must. Alright, my dear students, you all have fun figuring out the new realities of your own personal boundaries getting tested! I’m ready to watch you all get freaky! Don’t keep me waiting!”

And with that, Monokuma was gone.

“Well, I hope wherever Kaito ends up going, he has a good time there. Because my name isn’t ever getting crossed off that board again.” Kokichi said, with a casual grin, waving at everyone as he said cheerfully, “Okay~! I’m going now! Breakfast calls!”

“Kokichi, wait, we need to discuss…ugh, nevermind, this will be easier to talk about without him here anyway.” Shuichi realized, the small supreme leader of evil gone as Shuichi turned back to Miu and the door that, presumably, Kaito was listening behind. “Miu, I understand where you’re coming from with the orgy idea. But… I personally can’t do that either. It’s just too uncomfortable. But that doesn’t mean we can’t come up with some sort of game-plan on this. Kaito, please, if you would just come out…”

There was silence for a moment…before finally the door cracked open. Kaito looking out for a moment, accessing all of his friends expressions…before sighing, opening the door. Very pointedly not looking at the new sign on his door, Kaito walked out, rubbing the back of his neck, looking… exhausted. “Hey guys… sorry about that. Was trying to collect my thoughts on all this.”

“Are you alright, Kaito?” Kirumi asked, hands layered over her apron as she bowed her head slightly, “If you like, I could bring you your breakfast from the dining hall, if you’d rather stay in your room for the meal.”

“No, thanks Kirumi… I’m alright.” Kaito said, having a hard time looking anyone in the eye as he shrugged. “This is all kind of weird, right? But… I’m not seeing why I should do any of this. If I’m not going to be hurt, then I can stand being taken away to somewhere else for a little while, right? That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“If Gonta understand…” Gonta said, adjusting his glasses, “Kaito only stay one day at time then? Then gone for unknown time. Depending on where Kaito go, that sound not good to Gonta…”

“That does sound stressful, yeah.” Ryoma said, eyes narrowed with learned suspicion as he added in, “Especially depending on if anyone else is going to be there…putting a person in solitary for too long does things to them. It’s no joke.”

“Yeah…maybe.” Kaito said, clearly not wanting to talk about any of this. He had bags under his eyes and a paleness to his cheeks that suggested that maybe he had spent some time that morning crying. No one was unkind enough to point that out. “But there are worst things, right? I’m at least going to try to see if I can adjust to the new schedule before I ask you all to…ya know. I don’t want to ask anyone to do anything like that just to…there are worst things that could be…yeah.” Kaito said, growling slightly as he kicked the floor, trying hard to articulate his thoughts as he finally settled on, “We’re not all doing that just to spare me some discomfort, got it? It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Kaito…” Shuichi said, looking over at the board, seeing his own name written in his own, neat handwriting in a dark yellow color, “…look, if you need us too-“

“Let’s not talk about this right now.” Kaito decided, a grin on his face, putting his hero persona back on as he said, “Let’s at least just see how this goes if we leave it alone for awhile, alright? We might be worrying over nothing! Hey, I’m hungry. You guys wanna go get breakfast?”

Everyone still uncomfortable, still worried, still glancing at their own names on his board…just nodded, taking his lead as he lead the group away from his room, and out of the dorms.

-

The person who shared a face with Tsumugi chuckled, unseen as she and her companion watched the events going on, everything recording, as it always was.

“Okay, I’ll plainly admit, I had my doubts.” She told the man beside her, who shared a face with Shuichi, but wore his with a …lewd intent. His face blushing red as he snickered, enjoying watching the denial and discomfort on all his pets faces. Cap low on his face. “But you were right. That was a fun start to this. It’s a slow-burner, for sure, but I can see this escalating nicely.”

“We should show the others the play by play. See what they think.” The man who shared Shuichi’s face said, hugging his own shoulders as he said, with a slight haze in his eyes, “I can’t wait for him to break and start asking for the others for help… it’s going to be so humiliating… do you think Astro will be embarrassed on his behalf?”

The person who shared a face with Tsumgi sighed. That. That right there was why none of their friends liked to hang out with Wrong. He just… wasn’t satisfied with messing with AI avatars. He always had to make it weirdly personal. To try to get a reaction out of his own friends as well.

But, oh well... Mastermind liked him well enough. He was a total creep, sure, but he was a total creep who really appreciated Masterminds work, and came up with some pretty interesting videos from his own server world as well. His idea to tweak Gonta’s code and make him a cannibal had been… weirdly inspired, though Mastermind had dismissed the idea as too crude when she had first heard it. It had been actually a lot of fun, seeing the still friendly, polite Gonta, try to keep his friends alive as long as possible while still getting his meal of choice…

The woman who shared Himiko’s face said she had thrown up watching it. The man who shared Shuichi’s face had rode that compliment for _weeks_.

“Astro knows the difference between himself and his avatar. I doubt he’ll feel personally embarrassed, no.” she said, entirely sincere, noting the look of disappointment on his face as she said, “But I’m sure they’ll all enjoy watching it. Let me edit the video and my last video down, and we’ll show everyone.”

“Yeah…” Wrong said, an eager grin on his face, lust blushing his cheeks as he said, “This is going to be a lot of fun.”


	4. The Chair is a Bad Time

The rest of the day went relatively normally, if maybe a little tense. Shuichi, Kaede and Maki were hovering around Kaito, who wasn’t saying much, and gently shut down every attempt to bring up the issue of the challenge. So they tried to just talk about normal things, trying to keep things light, which Kaito appreciated…but honestly, the man kept glancing over at Kokichi, who was cheerily eating through his own breakfast as around him some of their classmates whispered among themselves, trying to work out what could be done about Kaito’s situation.

Kaito couldn’t hear for the most part what they were saying, but clenched his silverware when Kokichi, loudly, laughed and said, answering something Gonta had said, “I told you already. Forever!”

The taller man stared at his own food, his mind racing as his friends talked around him, considering his options as he knew them right now.

Spoiler alert: they all sucked.

When Kaito had opened the door early this morning and seen the board on his door, he had spent a stunned moment studying it, mostly just confused, and then increasingly flustered and, finally, furious, as he tried to rip the thing down with his bare hands. When he found it wouldn’t so much as budge under his grip, but his classmates started coming out of their rooms, hearing the commotion, Kaito had escaped back into his room, slamming the door closed before sliding down it, sitting on the other side of the door, clutching his hair through what was slowly becoming a panic attack, just seeing Kokichi’s name lined out in the list and thinking that could only mean one thing, hyperventilating as he thought to himself, She can’t, she can’t, she can’t make him hurt the others the way she had made him hurt Kokichi, she can’t, can she???

And as he was struggling to breath through that idea, Monokuma had shown up, watching Kaito curiously struggling to compose himself, tears starting to fall down his face in his sheer panic, before, in a surprisingly gentle way for the murder-obsessed bear, he asked what the fuck Kaito was freaking out about and then explained what the challenge actually was about.

“S-so…” Kaito said, body shaking, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes as they fell, embarrassed at his lack of composure but entirely unable to help himself, “N-no one’s gonna die if I r-refuse?”

“Nope!” The bear had replied cheerfully, “Not that kind of challenge, bub. No one will be hurt if you and your classmates don’t decide to participate. It’s just a fun challenge to inspire sexy times in your classmates!”

That…that didn’t sound so bad…Kaito felt his heart slow down, felt the shaking ease. He kept thinking of the hydraulic press…b-but this wasn’t that. So…what -was- it then? “S-so…are there any rules or…”

And then the bear had explained the ‘progress every day’ rule, and the punishment for not making a new conquest in a day. “Where do I go?” Kaito asked.

“Just away.” The bear said, “Honestly, young people today. You give them the perfect excuse to go fuck anyone they want, and they respond with a panic attack. Snowflakes, all of ya! Alright, well, I’ll leave you to explain it to your classmates. Pu-huhuhuhu!” and then he had disappeared.

Kaito had honestly felt a little better after it had been explained to him…but Gonta was right too. Even if the time ‘away’ was only a day or two, Kaito was now looking at a future where it was extremely likely he’d spend more time ‘away’ then he did here. What was that…going to be like?

Okay. Let’s say it was bad. What was his way out of this then? Well…he could always count on his friends, of course. If it was actually bad, they wouldn’t abandon him, h-he was certain. It’d be uncomfortable, for sure. But…certainly none of them would deny him if he needed this from them. It was more him not wanting to ask them to do it then anything…though, maybe, there were a few people here that would need more incentive then that, honestly.

Miu had already agreed within the first moment of hearing the challenge. Not surprising, but also Kaito felt himself grateful towards her for not only agreeing right away, but not even seeming to think it was that big a deal. Her idea, while ludicrous, had been a comfort, in that it made Kaito feel like this was going to be less of a burden then it was.

Then there were his closer friends. Shuichi, Maki, Kaede. They’d…it’d be super weird, but they would agree if he asked, he was certain. Maybe it would even be fun with them. A, ya know…a bonding experience, like the bear had said.

Ryoma had, in his own way, said he’d do it, though Kaito had gotten the impression from listening in on their conversation through the door that the smaller man may need time to get used to the idea. Fine, that was fine! Gonta was…Kaito didn’t want to make any assumptions, but trying anything with Gonta seemed…intimidating. But he’d help, Kaito was certain. Kirumi would probably help if he asked…same with Rantaro. Korekiyu was another idea that was weirdly intimidating, but, Kaito couldn’t see him abandoning him either…

The idea of sleeping with Himiko was weirdly disturbing. She just acted so hapless all the time. Kaito couldn’t really imagine _anyone_ sleeping with her, let alone himself. It’d be like she was being taken advantage of. Tenko was going to be a nightmare to convince, as Kaito was fairly certain the woman was firmly batting only for her fellow ladies. Angie was…well, maybe she’d agree easily. Kaito honestly wasn’t sure what her deal was. Hopefully this wouldn’t be against her religion.

Then, of course…the last two.

Kaito tried to imagine either one and just…felt a wave of nausea hit him, sweat starting to prick at his hairline. Kaito was genuinely struggling to just be in the same room as Tsumugi right this moment, carefully ignoring her and feeling an occasional jolt of fear course through him every time she laughed. How the fuck was he going to…god dammit.

And Kokichi…

Kokichi had already said no.

And…that was kind of it, wasn’t it? If Kokichi had already refused, then the challenge was failed. There _was_ no getting out of this for Kaito, not without doing something terrible that he’d hate himself for. And he couldn’t, he couldn’t, not if his or someone else’s life wasn’t at risk. He couldn’t.

…so…yeah.

That was it.

Maybe if Kaito begged…or bargained? Maybe if he could find and offer Kokichi something he really wanted…but honestly, Kaito couldn’t imagine a scenario where that really worked out, and he felt his pride flare at the idea of begging that twisted little shit for anything, let alone the right to fuck him.

Maybe one day, if it was bad enough, maybe Kokichi could just be talked into it…but for now, Kaito just had to assume that was a non-starter.

So…what did that actually leave him with?

Fourteen shots of sticking around two days in a row, really. Wasn’t really worth anything. Maybe he could renegotiate the rules with Monokuma? If it became real obvious that Kaito was never going to finish the challenge, literally couldn’t, certainly the bear would get bored. Meanwhile, asking his friends to do anything uncomfortable for a measly extra day to stick around before being taken away again was stupid. Not worth thinking about.

So…yeah. He’d just adjust, and ignore the board on his door. Just deal with things as they came. It was the only decision, really.

-

“Wanna speed through the day?” The man who shared a face with Shuichi asked Mastermind. She nodded, and he opened up the interface and pressed the fast-forward button.

-

What the FUCK was happening!?

It was…impossible to describe how genuinely _jarring_ it was for Kokichi to suddenly feel his body, thoughts, and actions just…going into overdrive. He, and everyone around him, was suddenly talking, fast and high, their movements almost jerky as the world around him seemed to try to decide it was going to become stop-motion or just incredibly quick animation, and bouncing back and forth between the two ideas. What was truly baffling was that Kokichi was experiencing this both in the moment, second by second as he would have in any normal situation, while _also_ being entirely conscious of how quickly everything as moving.

He both went through his whole day entirely normally, and then blinked and suddenly it was night out.

When time suddenly seemed to shift back to normal, Kokichi realized his whole body ached, realizing that he had spent all day with every muscle tensed in fear and utter confusion at what was happening to it. He took a deep, frightened breath, before closing his eyes, feeling weirdly motion-sick after all that. Fuck. What the fuck!?

If…if that could just never happen again…that’d be fucking fantastic, thanks.

Realizing he had ended up back in his room, having, apparently, been planning to go to bed before the side of his brain that was caught in the speed-up rejoined the rest of him, making the idea of going to bed at this point seem baffling now, Kokichi threw back the covers and rubbed his eyes, just so frustrated. Had…had that been life on fast forward? What else could it have been? Stupid fucking video game logic…

Kokichi glanced up at the clock in his room and realized what exactly had happened. It was 11:55 at night. Ah. So, whoever was watching this play out had wanted to get to the next interesting bit, huh? Fuckers…

…fuck, he wanted to see this too.

Throwing on his shirt, Kokichi headed out of his room, heading downstairs where he saw quite a few of his fellow classmates had the same idea as him. Kaede, Rantaro, Shuichi and Maki and, surprisingly, Tenko, were all downstairs, with Kaito standing next to his door, looking slightly nervous but otherwise okay as his friends kept an eye out. They all looked up at Kokichi on the stairwell with various levels of exasperation, except for Kaito, who trained his eyes on the ground now. Still unable to really look at Kokichi.

“What are you guys dooooing?” Kokichi asked, grinning down at them, before suddenly pouting and looking hurt as he said, “How come I wasn’t invited to the sleepover??”

“Shut up, Kokichi.” Tenko said, her face serious. Determined. “We’re waiting to see exactly what happens to Kaito at midnight. If it’s possible to stop Kaito from being taken to wherever, then the whole challenge is as good as done.”

Ah, so that was why Tenko was here. Trying to find a different solution to the problem that wouldn’t require her to sleep with him. Noble, in its own self-serving kind of way. Kokichi snickered, sitting down at the top step as he said, “Ooooh, that sounds really exciting! I wonder if you’ll end up trying to fight Exisals again! I’m gonna just stay up here and watch, okay?”

“Kokichi.” Shuichi sighed, adjusting his baseball cap as he said, “That’s not very hel-“

“No, it’s fine.” Kaito said, crossing his arms, “Look, I appreciate where your heads at guys, but if it comes down to a fight, I don’t want you all getting hurt over something like this. This might not even be that bad. I’m just getting, I don’t know, grounded and stuff. Not a big deal.”

“I just can’t help but feel like its too easy.” Rantaro said, giving Kaito a concerned look, “I also don’t think we should fight until we know for sure, but if it comes down to it Kaito, a fight might be what it takes.”

“I’m just so frustrated with this whole thing.” Kaede said, “It’s so violating, the whole idea! None of us should have to do this. It’s nothing against you Kaito.” She added in quickly, Kaito just shrugging at that, “I just…ugh. It’s frustrating.”

“We’re out of time.” Maki pointed out, hearing the soft chime from outside indicating it was midnight. “Everyone keep an eye out for…Kaito?”

Kokichi sighed, watching the five friends suddenly looking around, all of them having missed entirely Kaito just…vanish. Even the ones who had been looking directly at him. Another thing in the code, he supposed…

…well, maybe Kaito just…stopped existing for awhile? Maybe that was what the bear meant by ‘away’. There were worst things then that. Not that he’d really know till Kaito came back…

Kokichi tsked, disappointed by the whole thing. He had really wanted more information then that had given him. Not that more information on Kaito’s fate would change Kokichi’s mind about his own involvement in the challenge. That was still, and always would be, no. But it was important to monitor how potentially desperate Kaito might get…to see if this was going to be another thing Kaito thought was an adequate excuse to hold Kokichi down for.

…and no. Kokichi wasn’t worried about him too. Thanks for fucking asking.

As Kaito’s friends grew increasingly baffled at what just happened, Kokichi decided that was probably all there was to the show tonight, and headed back to his room. He wondered, idly, if their captors were going to fast-forward again…blegh. He hoped not.

Kokichi didn’t find himself wondering where Kaito was while he tried to sleep. He did find himself wondering if he should be trying to work out the limits to their captors effects on this world. Every video game had a limit, right? To what was actually capable of happening to its NPC’s? Developers couldn’t account for literally everything…there had to be a game-breaking bug out there somewhere…

With this thought in mind, Kokchi eventually fell asleep.

-

  
When Kaito had woken up (because…he had woken up, right? It had felt more like he had blinked, but…), he discovered that ‘away’ was a circular, bricked room…and a chair.

He stared, confused, at the gray, bricked room. The roof seemed weirdly low, and Kaito got the impression that if he tried to stand in here, he’d have some difficulty. It was dark, and there was no source of light to be found, but to Kaito’s befuddlement, he found he could still easily see, the lines of the bricks in the wall as detailed to him in this darkness as it would have been with a ceiling light.

It was cold. It was really, really cold.

He tried to move his arms and couldn’t, and he looked down, realizing he was strapped down to the chair. Thick, wide leather straps bound his arms to the chair’s, and a quick test of his legs showed they were under a similar treatment, trapped and buckled down against the chairs legs. Kaito leaned over to see if he could get a good look at exactly what his legs were being bound by, and saw the same thick leather straps…when a hand went through his hair and pulled him back up, a wave of shock going through Kaito as he realized he wasn’t alone.

The hand pulled him backwards, so that he was sitting straight back against the chair, and just as Kaito cried out, he was stunned back into silence when he heard the sound of metal hinges, and felt something cold and hard circle closed tight around his neck.

“W-what is this!?” Kaito shouted, though the shout was somewhat difficult to do, coming out rasping slightly as the metal around his neck pressed hard into him, choking into him when Kaito tried to move. “Stop this!”

Now that he was thoroughly secured, someone came around the front, and Kaito realized in that moment that two people were there, hands now affectionately petting through his hair as…

“Sh…” Kaito said, a shock of hurt running through him as recognized his friend, though…he had never seen his friend look at anything like the way he was looking at him, having put his leg over Kaito and was now sitting in his lap, straddling him with an expression that was half mocking, half adoring. “Shuichi? W-what? What are you doing? What is this!?”

Shuichi brought his index finger up to his lip, and gave a small “shhh,” sound. Then he brought out from seemingly nowhere a small, rectangle wooden block, with a circular underside right in the middle, and a black leather strap at each end, and said, “Sorry Kaito, you have to be good to get speaking privileges. And you’re not there yet. Open up.”

“Shuichi, stop, what are you doing!? What the fuck man!?” Kaito said, staring down at the bit with growing nerves, “A-aren’t you my sidekick!?”

“Honestly, Kaito, you’re not going to do yourself any favors fighting this.”

Kaito’s heart dropped into his stomach, as he realized who was behind him. Tsumugi’s light, no-nonsense tone shredding his insides with a rush of fear as she put her hands around his face, pulling back his forehead and grasping his jaw as she said, “Like he said. You have to be good. Then things will get better.”

Kaito was too freaked out to fight back when Shuichi placed the wooden bit in his mouth, Kaito’s teeth clenching around it when Tsumugi let go of his jaw, Tsumugi then taking on the task of tying it tightly around the back of Kaito’s head. Shuichi then pulled out a thick, black cloth, and Kaito realized immediately that he was going to be blinded as well as Shuichi handed that to Tsumugi as well. Smiling as he said, “Seeing privileges will have to be earned…hearing privileges…eventually, you’ll even get out of the chair and get to move around, Kaito. Doesn’t that sound fun? You just have to be good.”

Kaito felt his heart start to race when the blindfold went over his eyes. Be good? Be good how!? What the fuck did that even mean!? Kaito started to shake, violently, as he felt something shift around him, and realized whatever was happening, it was about to take away his hearing. Shuichi just kept murmuring, “It’s okay, Kaito. None of this is gonna hurt. You’re oka-“ before something clamped around his ears and all sound was gone.

Kaito shook in the chair, all senses now on mute, with the exception of the cold of the room aroud him and the feeling of Shuichi still in his lap. He was heavy, and Shuichi didn’t seem to mind leaning all of his weight into him as he shifted around on him, doing something. Kaito felt himself flinch in surprise when he felt what was likely Tsumugi’s hand on his ear, adjusting the clamp around is head into the hole of his ear more securely onto him, the whole process making a rough, loud sound grind through Kaito’s skull before she left it alone, putting her arms around Kaito’s shoulders and resting her chin on his head. The two were probably talking to each other, Kaito realized.

He sat there, in the darkness and the silence, unable to move as these two people just randomly shifted around him, using his body as a seat, as a post to lean on, and Kaito just…unable to do anything about any of it. He flinched again as he felt a hand on his forehead, shifting his hair away, and could feel Shuichi shift his weight forward, an involuntary growling sound emitting form the back of Kaito’s throat maybe causing Shuichi to stop, pausing a moment…before Kaito could feel a strange vibration coming from the slightly smaller man. Laughing. Shuichi was laughing.

And then Kaito felt a kiss placed on his forehead, and felt his heart sink into his stomach again.

“..uichi?” he tried to say through the bit, but as he attempted to talk, the straps behind his head were pulled tighter, the wood more effectively pinning down his tongue, and Kaito felt himself start to drool around it, his jaw aching as his teeth clenched mindlessly around it.

Kaito felt another small kiss on his forehead, and then on his cheek, and then, through the cloth, a kiss pressed into each of his blind eyes. Kaito bore it all (what else could he do?), his shoulders hiking up towards his ears, feeling defensive and afraid, wondering how far this was about to go…before Shuichi suddenly took his weight off of him, getting off of his lap. Kaito felt a kiss on the top of his skull, and then Tsumugi pulled her arms away as well.

Kaito sat there for awhile, wondering what their next move was going to be…but nothing happened. And then nothing continued to happen…he made a sound in his throat. Nothing close to a word, but clearly a question, calling out.

What…what was coming next?

-

Kaito realized nothing was next after enough time went by…but, for the life of him, he couldn’t tell how much time that was. He kept finding himself pulling at his bindings. Not urgently, just…as something to do. His back was starting to ache, kept in a firm, rigid straight position, only eased a little when Kaito was willing to lean into the metal choker, which was…sometimes. The act of bind pressing against his windpipe uncomfortable, painful, even, if he pushed too hard, but…

At least the feeling was…something…

Kaito, alone and afraid and, just…surrounded by _nothing_ but his own bindings, found after some time that he was focusing on things that he would have never noticed before. He could feel the top layer of his skin in a new way. It was cold, but the meat underneath was warm. Warmed by his blood, which…he was pretty certain he could hear now. Not his heartbeat. His blood. Traveling through his veins…he was certain he could hear it. Warming the layer of his skin just below the surface skin. Which was cold. So fucking cold.

He decided at some point he could feel the hairs on his arms as well. He also decided that he could feel wind blowing against the hair on his arms…despite the fact that he couldn’t feel wind anywhere else. And that his arms were being covered by his long-sleeve button up shirt.

He wondered where his jacket went. He had been wearing it when he ‘left’.

He thought about that moment for awhile. Surrounded by his friends, avoiding Kokichi’s mocking gaze, and then just…gone. He thought about that memory until, all of the sudden…he realized he couldn’t. That focusing on the memory was too difficult, that holding it and looking at it with any real detail was like trying to hold jelly between his fingers.

He tried thinking about something else. He tried to think about his grandparents and lost the image quickly. He tried to think of space. That was a little easier, but it was…all vague. Random facts that didn’t connect to each other flitting idly through his brain, unable to grasp any of them with any serious consideration for too long. He kept getting distracted by the wind on the hair of his arms.

He pulled at his binds. After awhile, he pushed into the metal collar. Felt it choke him. Pushed until it hurt. Readjusted when it became too much, breathing shallowly between the bite between his teeth, pinning his tongue down. He felt a little better…

His blood was so loud.  
-

After awhile, he heard laughter.

It was there. It was so, so faint, but it was definitely laughter. Just light, bell-like giggles. Maybe a child? The location of the voice was too difficult to ascertain, but it was definitely there. Just… _just_ in his range of hearing, just penetrating through the plugs inside his ears. A small, bell-like giggle.

Kaito called out to the giggle, the noise vibrating in the back of his throat. Then, because the feeling of the inside of his throat vibrating was at least something, he started to hum, with varying degrees of intensity. He hummed softly, feeling the little tickle. Then he hummed louder. He hummed so loud that it was a scream, and he felt his throat tear and scratch itself against it, and he kept screaming because he liked the vibration, liked the little pain of the tears in his throat muscle, screamed for as long as he could until his body stopped him by force, causing him to cough, each cough a little rip of pain.

He stopped humming for awhile. He felt the cold drool of his mouth, dripping past the bit and pooling into little puddles against his chest and stomach. Dripping down his neck. It was cold. It was so cold.

-

Was there something in the room with him?

-

Were Shuichi and Tsumugi going to come back?

Kaito wanted them to come back. He wanted it desperately.

It’d be okay if they touched him, that was fine. That was more than fine. It would be something. He wanted Shuichi’s weight on him again. He wanted Tsumugi’s hand in his hair. He even wanted those little kisses against his face and his skull, even if each little kiss had scared him. Disturbed him. The implications behind gentle touches…

But that was still better then this.

They needed to come back.

Kaito pushed against the choker for so long that he felt dizzy. Choking and rasping against the skin inside his throat, rubbed raw by his earlier screaming. Earlier? How much earlier? When were Tsumgi and Shuichi coming back? He wanted them back.

He wanted anything.

Why was his blood so loud!?

-

Could he go home yet?

Please?

He really, really wanted to go home, please.

Please, please, please, he wanted to go home, please.

Please, please, please, he wanted to go home, please please please, Tsumugi? Tsumugi please? Please please please.

He’d be good, he’d be good, he had said so, right?

Tsumugi?

Please please please.

Could he go home?

-

He pulled against the choker as long as he could.

He tasted iron in his mouth.

At least it was something.

-

It was over as suddenly as it started, and Kaito screamed when his world was suddenly filled with light and color. He closed his eyes and covered his ears and collapsed, shaking and shivering as he suddenly had access to his body, could suddenly hear everything, the light HUMMING above his room, the shockingly loud THUMP of his knees hitting against the floor, his own fucking breathing, almost overwhelming in how LOUD everything was.

His whole body shuddered violently when the tv in the corner of his room turned on, and Monokuma’s voice (so loud so loud stop SHOUTING) announced that it was morning time, and encouraged all of his students to enjoy the day! Then, almost as an afterthought, the bear mentioned that today was the day Kaito Momota was coming back, so if anyone wanted to see him before he went away again, he was in his room. The television shutting off after that.

Almost seconds later, there was a heavy knocking on his door, and Kaito shivered and convulsed, too loud, too loud, stop it!

There was shouting behind the door, more knocking, but Kaito couldn’t get it together enough to answer, curling into himself, trying to protect his body from the sudden overwhelming sensation of everything. There were more voices outside, and suddenly, Kaito could hear in keen detail something scratching into the lock on his door. The click as the lock flicked open, and the door opened.

Kaito dared to open his eyes, squinting through the influx on messages his eyeballs were trying to send him, his vision blurring from the effort. A hand went onto each shoulder, and Kaito blinked hard, and Shuichi-

Kaito gasped, pulling himself away from Shuichi, staring at him in shock. Shuichi, in turn, as Katio was able to focus more, just looked at him in concern, looking…normal again. Behind him was a good portion of their classmates, Kokichi starring from a corner, accessing, Maki coming to the other side of Kaito, her hands suddenly on him, pressing against his shoulder, his side, “Stop!” Kaito said, pushing her away from himself with more force then he had planned too, standing up and backing away from all of them. His breathing coming in heavy, his heart pounding as all of his friends tried to talk to him at once, too loud, too much, “Stop! I can’t…stop!”

“I’m checking you for injuries Kaito.” Maki finally managed to get through, her voice the first one that made some small amount of sense in the rush of noise. “You were screaming.”

“But, Monokuma said Kaito wasn’t going to be hurt, didn’t he?” Said Tsumugi, her voice somewhere in the crowd, though Kaito couldn’t make her out in the blurring of his vision, and didn’t want to either, his eyes trained to the ground now, jaw clenching his teeth together, free of the bit.

“That big ol' bruise on his neck suggests that maaaaaybe that was a lie." Kokichi murmered.

Too much, too much, too much…

…but…but it was easing.

Kaito closed his eyes and breathed, hearing the voices, each of them becoming clearer moment to moment, Kaede saying that everyone needed to give Kaito some space, to back away from him. Shuichi asked Kaito if he was okay, if he needed water. “Gonta get water!” the gentleman offered, and off he went.

Little by little, everything came into focus, and it was all a little less… overwhelming.

“I’m okay.” Kaito suddenly said, his eyes feeling like maybe they were open too wide, but not sure how to fix it. His tongue felt too big in his mouth too. “I’m fine.” He said, trying too…trying to pull it together. His friends were worried about him. He had to pull it together…

“You don’t sound good, man. You sound like you have smokers cough, honestly. Take a seat.” Said…wait…Kaito frowned struggling to put a name to the face. Green hair…he knew who this was, he knew he did. What was his name??

Rantaro! Rantaro. Right. Of course.

Kaito took the seat, not because he wanted too, but…because it seemed like the next thing to do, now that Rantaro had said it. He looked up at all of his friends, who were all trying to get a peek at him, get a gauge of what had happened

Gonta came back after a few moments with a glass of water, and Kaito took it from him, sipping it and feeling it cool and sting against his throat, rubbed raw with that he had done to it in the room. Why had he shouted so much? Kaito wasn’t sure anymore…it had felt like it helped. But he wasn’t sure what it helped with now. Just…the quiet?

“When did you get back?” Kokichi asked, turning his head at him curiously. “Exactly, I mean. Was it midnight?”

Kaito looked over at him, confused. What did he mean? When did he…right, right. The time. Uh...Kaito struggled to collect his thoughts, which felt weirdly weightless, if that made any sense. “Monokuma morning announcement?” he said, not sure if that was totally right. It had felt like he hadn’t had any time before the television had turned on.

“So…only eighteen hours back in exchange for four days away.” Korekiyo murmured, “That is…indeed a quite harsh trade.”

Kaito blinked confusedly at all of them before it registered…four days?

…had it only been four days??

Kaito wasn’t sure how long he had felt it was, but four days seemed an impossibly short time in comparison to what it had felt like. Impossible short.

“Where did you go, Kaito?” Shuichi asked.

Kaito just stared back at Shuichi, just…so conflicted. He…he knew, didn’t he? Why was he...why had he-

“What’s the matter, Kaito?” Kokichi asked, “You don’t like Shuichi anymore?”

Kaito flinched, turning away from Kokichi, not sure what he should say. Should he tell everyone that Shuichi was there? Him and Tsumugi? Would it matter? Kokichi had said the Tsumugi from before was fake…and Shuichi looked so _different_ now…

“I was in a room, f-for a little while.” Kaito said, trying hard to collect his thoughts. To explain what had happened. “Then it was dark for a long time…they put stuff on me and it made everything dark.”

“They?” Shuichi asked. Kaito looked over at Shuichi’s earnest, concerned gaze…and couldn’t bring himself to say anything about it. He just shrugged.

“It was dark a lot? That doesn’t sound too bad.” Himiko drawled, “Good for napping…”

Kaito didn’t think he had slept. He wasn’t conscious of it if he had. He supposed it would have been hard to tell.

“On the contrary, four days in darkness…” Korekiyo chuckled, which got him some Looks from his classmates, “Was there anyone or anything with you?”

Kaito shook his head, just getting increasingly exhausted. Now that it had been brought up, he found he…really needed some sleep…he was so tired…

Another small chuckle, “That is indeed unfortunate…I am surprised Kaito is as coherent as he is. A sensory deprivation chamber is considered by many societies a very…comprehensive form of torture. Results in a whole list of delightful side effects in its victim. Tell me, Kaito. Did you hear anything in the darkness?”

Kaito stared up at…who was this person? He had just had his name, he had thought it a second ago… “Uh…some kid was laughing?”

“Delightful.” The masked man chuckled, until finally Tenko wacked him on the back of the head, “Ow! What?”

“Stop being creepy, Degenerate Male! It’s not a good thing our friend is getting tortured!” Tenko scolded.

“What’s the issue?” The masked man- Korekiyo! That one! Asked, genuinely confused. “He won’t go through it again, so by this point it will quickly become a strange, novel experience he had once. Certainly we all intend to fulfil the challenge knowing the reality of this new circumstance?”

There was a sudden…quiet. In the group.

Korekiyo raised an eyebrow. “Oh…I see…”

“T-torture is a scary word, but it really doesn’t sound…that bad.” Himiko said again, lowering her hat in front of her face, at least clearly a little ashamed of herself. “A-and it won’t matter if we all decide to do it or not, anyway! Kokichi already said he’s never doing it.”

Kokichi smiled. A sharp, disturbing look on his face. “Yep. I did say that.” He said, everyone looking back him as he chuckled, “Nee-heehee. So, if you guys want to decide not to help your dear, sweet Kaito-Chan because of that, well, makes sense to me! All of you are entirely blameless now, no need to feel guilty at all~!”

“That’s not what Himiko is trying to get at!” Tenko said, clenching her fists, “All she’s saying is, uh…th-that if you’re not going to do it, then it’s already a moot point!”

Kokichi rolled his eyes, inspecting his fingers, “Oh, yes, of course, I’m so sorry. That’s a totally different thing then what I just said she said.”

“Stop bickering, you guys.” Rantaro said, looking over to Kaito, who was staring at the ground, clearly in his own world at this point. “Kaito…what do you want to do?”

…eighteen hours? Was that right? Did he really only have eighteen hours and then he’d…he was supposed to do that again??

Kaito put his hands together and started worrying his joints, biting at his lower lip. Again? He’d have to do that again? God, he had really stated losing it in that last…day? Two days? Maybe he had started losing it right away…

“Kaito! Hey!” Miu shouted, startling Kaito out of his thoughts, who looked up at her in confusion. “Rantaro just asked you if you wanna get started fucking people or not!?”

“I mean…I didn’t put it like that...” Rantaro muttered.

“Atua thinks…”Angie said, closing her eyes and praying, “That Kaito should give it more time! That even if the first time felt bad, maybe Kaito will get used to it?”

“I think everyone here is seriously misunderstanding exactly what you’re asking Kaito to do.” Korekiyo said, just increasingly frustrated as he shifted his long hips, “I did explain that this is a well used, recognized form of torture, right? Constant, long periods of total sensory deprivation will have _serious_ consequences for his mental health, not to mention deteriorating basic cognitive skills. We should just make the decision now to finish the challenge and be done with it.”

“Angie personally has no problem with it. But Kokichi said he isn’t going to do it!” Angie pointed out, raising her hands towards Atua as she said, “And Atua believes him. So it is as Himiko said: pointless!”

“Kokichi, is there anything any of us can say to get you to change your mind?” Kaede asked.

Kokichi looked at her in honest surprise, before that wicked smile twisted his face again. “Oh, pu-lease, Kaede-chan. That’s rich coming from you. Everyone keeps bringing up my name, but you don’t plan to do this either. Let me just make this real easy for everyone, alright.” Kokichi started pointing from student to student, saying rapid fire. “Korekiyo, Miu, Angie and Ryoma, out of all of Kaito’s ‘friends’, are the only ones who have actually agreed to help with the challenge. Myself, our dear, brave leader Kaede, Tenko and Himiko have all actively, vocally refused. Everyone else has been too much of a coward to actually say one way or another how they feel about it, and I’m gonna go ahead and make the oh so educated guess that this is because they all secretly have already decided they’d rather not. Am I wrong?” he asked, smirking at the group.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

It was the silence that was too much. Kaito suddenly laughed, startling everyone, as they looked over to him, the guy just grinning appeasingly at everyone, holding his hands up in surrender. “Hey, come on guys, don’t fight. Angie, or, uh, Atua’s right. I’ll give it more time. I-it should be fine, right?”

Korekiyo raised an eyebrow, “Historically…no?”

Kaito hit his own chest, giving the group a wink as he said, “No, it will be! I’ll just get used to it! Everything’s going to be fine! I’ve got this!”

There was more then a few doubtful looks, but, well…for the most part, the statement was a relief. Another chance to delay making an actual decision, for a majority of the group. They’d take it.

-

Kaito went through the rest of the day in a haze.

He kept getting this sense of doom, wanting to watch the clock and fighting himself on it. And everytime he got that sense of doom, he got mad at himself. What was he so scared of? Sitting in the dark for a-awhile? That was stupid. What a stupid thing to be afraid of. He was Kaito Momota! He was going to go to space! Space was where darkness fucking LIVED. Kaito wasn’t afraid of sitting, immobile, in the void…

He tried to eat and couldn’t. He tried to hang out with his friends, but it was so uncomfortable. No one seemed to know how to act around him, and he didn’t know what to say. He kept forgetting words for things. He had, at one point, stood outside the university building, staring at the…block…clear part of it? That was, you know, part of the wall itself, just…growing more and more frustrated as he tried to remember what the fucking word for it was…

Window! It was called a window!

Why the fuck was he struggling to remember words of all things!?

He didn’t understand, and just got more and more frustrated with it. He could feel his temper flaring up, even at small things. He had found himself wanting to shout at Kaede for opening up a door too loudly. He could hear Maki breathing. And Shuichi…

Kaito had ended up leaving his friends behind for the day, hiding in the corner of the side outdoor sitting area for the University. It was too hard to be around them right now. And he still didn’t know what to think about what had happened with Shuichi.

The man…had looked just like him. It had been Shuichi, right? But that…look on his face. The sheer, mean lust on him…Kaito hadn’t even known Shuichi’s face could make an expression like that…

He wanted to talk to Kokichi about it, honestly. But whatever small truce Kokichi seeking him out in the dining hall the other (err, five days ago?) day had resulted in, had been obliterated by this new circumstances. Kokichi didn’t come seek him out and Kaito was too self conscious to go find him. Maybe his next day ‘back’ he would…

…fuck he was running out of time he was going back tonight he was going back tonight…

Kaito felt the panic start to spread from his chest into his throat and hated himself for it. Calm down! Calm down! You’ll get used to it! It’s just sitting in the dark! You’ll be fine!

-

This time, when midnight came, no one stopped by to see him off.

-

This time, Kaito started in the bindings, with the hearing silencer, the blindfold, and the bit already in, his metal collar already around his neck, slightly too tight again.

He didn’t know if Tsumugi or Shuichi were there…until he flinched violently when, seemingly out of nowhere, he felt a kiss against his forehead.

And then nothing after that.

-

Stop being afraid.

It was just dark.

It was just cold.

It was just quiet.

Stop being afraid.

Please?

Stop being afraid?

-

He was starting to decide that the bit was the worst part of this.

It was already so cold in this room, that just…feeling the drool of his mouth trail down his skin, making everywhere it touched even more cold, leaving Kaito more shivering and more wet as time went on, feeling disgusted with himself. Repulsed by his own seemingly endless stream.

Not even just that, but his jaw ached around it. He bit hard against it, trying to break it, to spit it out, but the wood seemed to take no damage no matter how hard he bit.

Kaito growled. He whimpered. He felt dumb and animalistic.

He felt weirdly hurt.

Degraded.

It tasted bad. It hurt his jaw. It covered him in drool.

Wasn’t he good enough yet?

How was he supposed to be good?

Shuichi?

Please come back and take the bit out.

Please?

Shuichi?

-

The press was above him.

He knew it was. He knew it was.

He could hear it.

Fuck, he could just…feel its presence. The press was up there, he knew it, he knew it, they had put the chair beneath the press. He could smell the metal, he was certain of it, he could smell the metal that he had pushed Kokichi into, could hear the starting mechanics of the press starting to turn on. He could hear it.

Was someone at the button?

He screamed out.

Please don’t push it, please, please don’t push it! He screamed and screamed and couldn’t hear himself at all beyond the vibrations of his throat in his head, but he could hear the press!

Could he feel it? He thought he could feel the edge of the ceiling, just…brushing against the top of his hair. He could feel it. Was it coming down on him? It wasn’t moving, but he could hear it starting, and he could feel it against his hair. He could feel the very tips of his hair, the same way you could feel the tip of your fingers. Had it moved? Had it felt like it moved??

He started to cry. His whole body was shaking, spasming, in mortal terror.

Please don’t push it, please don’t push it, please, please, please

He pulled against his bindings, against his collar, so hard that he felt the skin in outside his throat break, felt a small trail of blood start to stream down his throat, into his chest, mixing with the drool from around the bit, fuck, fuck, he hated the bit so much, he hated it so much please someone take away the bit, please don’t push the button, please, HE WANTED TO GO HOME!!

Fuck. Fuck!? Had he heard the press start to move?? Tsumugi? Tsumugi Tsumugi Tsumugi-

-

He could feel her there. He knew she was there. Her presence radiated on him.

Tsumugi?

Could he go home now?

He’d be good?

Even though Kaito had known she was there, his whole body jerked when he felt her hand on his face. Fuck!? Fuck!? Was she actually there? Had he actually felt that this time!? This time had felt different! Tsumugi!?

But the hand was gone as soon as he felt it, and Kaito’s tired, frightened brain looped on itself several times, insisting he had actually felt something this time, no, had he? Could he be sure? Had he felt her? Was she actually there? Of course she was there! Was she? Tsumugi?

Kaito felt his breath hiccup, tears running down his face. Had he actually felt it? He didn’t know. Tsumugi? Please stop this. Please?

Please touch him again? He’d know if it was real or not if she touched him again. Shuichi? Someone touch him please. It was cold. God he wanted to feel anything other then his fucking drool!

Tsumugi!?

He’d be good!!

Please!??  
-

Maybe he was dead?

-

When he ‘woke up’ this time, he collapsed.

He curled into a ball on the floor, closing his eyes and covering his ears, shivering into the floor of his dorm room, Monokuma’s morning announcement ringing through his head like a bell. This time, Monokuma didn’t announce that Kaito had returned, but finished his announcement with a seemingly offhand comment of “Oh, and for those of you wondering? Six days.” Before the television shut itself off.

Six days, six days, six days, eighteen hours. Eighteen hours left. Eighteen hours for what? Kaito…it was so hard to focus. Eighteen hours? For what? Why was that important?

The challenge, the challenge, eighteen hours for the challenge, he couldn’t go back, he couldn’t go back, he couldn’t-

Kaito closed his eyes tighter he screamed with his mouth closed, curling in tighter to himself. Taking comfort in his own body heat, in the feel of himself, able to move, the warmth of himself. His chest ached. He couldn’t go back, please, please, he couldn’t go back he can’t he can’t he can’t-

-

It was noon when Kaito finally calmed down. When he left his room, Gonta was there, hanging out in the dorm lobby. Gonta had looked at him, shocked. “Kaito! You are back!” He said, reaching out.

Kaito flinched when Gonta did, but…he bet Gonta was warm. He bet anything Gonta was warm…Kaito shook his head, ignoring Gonta. He already had a destination in mind. He couldn’t risk failing, even if being around Gonta sounded really, really…comforting. He didn’t want anything from Gonta. He just wanted him to hug him a little…but no, no, he had to focus. Focus!

Kaito walked out of the dorm building, and immediately turned towards Miu’s lab.

Determined.


	5. The Chair is a Very Bad Time

“Guess what I did today?” The man who shared a face with Shuichi asked the man tied to the post.

He wasn’t always tied to the post. Fake-Shuichi, known as ‘Wrong’ to his friends, had gotten angry at him, oh…a couple of sessions ago. And the post was meant to be a punishment for…whatever had pissed him off so much? Honestly, Wrong couldn’t even really remember what it was. Something about the way the man on the post had looked at him?

Ah well. It didn’t matter either way. He just still liked the way his pet looked on the post. Liked the way he shivered and trembled, but not in fear. No, not anymore. Just exhaustion. His body bloody, bruised and spent already well beyond its limits, and then even further then that. He liked the way the eyes looked at nothing, their cold, grayish yellow tint not even registering Wrong’s presence. Entirely done.

It was always a lot of effort to get him like this, so when Wrong achieved it, he wasn’t like his friends and just prone to ‘resetting’ his pet back to default. He appreciated more then just the rush of the screams and the tears. He liked to linger over the final, quiet, broken results. To indulge in the fruits of his labor for days, sometimes weeks.

If that caused his pets additional suffering…well, good. Wasn’t that always the goal?

He didn’t mind that there was no answer. He knew that his pet wasn’t ignoring him, not really. That he wouldn’t dare. The blue haired beauty (was that vain? Well, some healthy self confidence never hurt anyone) was just lost in his own senses right now, too far gone to recognize what was happening around him without additional help.

So, Wrong went to his wall of tools, and considering all of them, decided for what might seem like the unusual choice (after all, he had so many shiny, pretty, _sharp_ toys to choose from) grabbing the bottle of bleach. But he knew it would do the trick, as he undid the top, leaning over letting the scent of it reach up to his pet…

Shuichi gasped, his whole body suddenly tensing violently as he tried, unsuccessfully, to pull himself away from the smell, looking up at Wrong with wide, panicked eyes. “N—no! No! No!”

“Shhhhh, sh sh sh, it’s okay, it’s okay.” Wrong said with a warm, flushed smile, quickly moving to put the bleach away, enjoying the way Shuichi’s eyes followed him as Wrong made a show of putting the bleach back on the counter. “It’s okay, it’s okay. We’re not doing that today, okay? I just wanted to wake you up. No cutting today, promise.”

Shuichi stared at him, breathing heavily…before his eyes fluttered, looking around, reassessing where he was.

Wrong liked to use the word ‘promise’. It was an incredibly useful tool, if you could get them to trust it. When it came to his more long-term AI’s, he committed to the bit, since it made calming them so much simpler. If he promised something, Shuichi could believe him. It really did make things so much easier…

And it was always so fun to eventually turn that belief on its head.

Though, he usually reserved that little trick to their final days, before he reset them to default, to start the process again. 

…Not for this one though. Never this one. At least, not mentally. His body, sure, eventually.

But his mind?

No, no.

Not this one.

Wrong always kept his promises to this particular strand of code, and Shuichi rewarded his commitment with that resigned, tired, accepting look as Wrong asked him again, “Guess what I did today?” Shuichi didn’t care what he did. He wanted to go back to sleep. He had been asleep, right? He wanted the man to leave him alone today. More then that, he didn’t want the man to pick up his blades again…though if Wrong (not that Shuichi knew this person by that name) said nothing more was being cut today, then it wasn’t.

Not that this ‘reprieve’ meant much to the AI. If the man didn’t want to cut him, Shuichi guessed he had some different stupid fucking ‘game’ to look forward too.

Whatever.

Shuichi just blinked slowly at him, still exhausted from the abysmal state of his body. He knew the man wanted an actual response, and that he wouldn’t be patient forever, so he tried answering, “…hurt…someone…?”

“Something, certainly.” Wrong said with a small, sweet giggle, “Do you wanna come down from the post and I’ll tell you all about it?” he asked, looking up at Shuichi’s wrists, the skin red and raw and bleeding from where he hung.

Shuichi blinked again. Took a breath that was probably meant to be deeper then it ended up being, Shuichi’s heart drowning a little from the position of his arms being raised above him for so long. “…re…reset?”

Wrong gave him a little kiss on his cheek, Shuichi not reacting at all to it. Just watching him. A terrible mixture of hope and resignation until Wrong said, “Soon. Very soon. Okay?”

Shuichi was clearly disappointed by this answer, looking away from him for a moment, his lips tightly pressed together as there was another small breath that the detective probably desperately wished was deeper. There was a small trickle of tears, just a few, as he swallowed his resentment. “…h…hurts…”

“I know.” Wrong said, not unkindly, as he went to go release his pets chains. “I know ‘soon’ isn’t much of a comfort when the pain is that bad, huh? But I promise you. I’ll reset you soon.”

Shuichi gasped as he suddenly fell, and screamed when he landed on things that were once his legs, landing on his side and his body, soaked with pain and exhausted, trembled violently, clutching at his own hair just to have something to hold onto as he rode the waves of agony. Wrong looked down at him, that ever present pleased smile on his face at the sight of him, before bending down, picking Shuichi up bridal style (strength was easy, in a virtual setting), taking him to sit with him on the couch on the other side of the room, keeping Shuichi in his lap.

He pet Shuichi hair as the detective shuddered and spasmed in his arms, his arms slowly losing their numbness and now starting to itch and ache in the most terrible way, ants crawling beneath his skin as the bloodflow through them started to pick up track.

This lasted awhile, but Wrong was patient. He loved his pet. He knew him well enough. Once Shuichi _c_ _ould_ be good, he would be. Wrong just had to let his body settle down, and he would pay attention to what he was saying again. Eventually, the shaking did subside, and though his breaths were shuddering, Wrong could see that they were deeper now, Shuichi finally getting the full access to oxygen he had been so desperate for before.

“Better?” Wrong asked.

Shuichi took another shuddering breath…and then nodded. His eyes kept dipping unevenly, clearly struggling to stay awake, especially now that the worst of the pain was passed. Wrong didn’t mind. If Shuichi passed out, he’d just wake him up again. And the man who shared a face with him liked the way Shuichi leaned all of his weight into him, resting his head into the crook of his shoulder. Helpless intimacy.

“We’re going to watch it, actually.” Wrong said, using his free hand to open up the menu, clicking onto himself and Shuichi and moving them to the theater room. Shuichi closed his eyes just in time, the sudden shift in scenery as walls fell away and then reformed differently around them always making him motion sick, not to mention that little ‘drop’ feeling as their bodies shifted from the couch in the torture room to the much nicer one in the theater.

Wrong, who experienced this reality differently than his AI prisoner, was unbothered by the shift. He kissed Shuichi’s forehead when he heard his pet groan, smiling as he did so. His AI was so cute…every little movement, every little noise, always awoke something in Wrong, whether it was violent lust or adoration. And Wrong could indulge in any of those feelings, literally whenever he wanted…

What a time to be alive.

When the fast travel was done, Shuichi opened his eyes again, swallowing at his nausea. He looked up, warily, at ‘master’, the only name Shuichi had ever been given for this person. What was left of his legs…hurt a lot. It was going to be so hard to focus on anything but that, let alone whatever stupid video the fucker wanted to show him. Maybe he could make another plea to his captor…

“…please…” Shuichi said, trying to focus his thoughts. What could he say that would convince him to reset? There had to be something…he grasped Wrong’s shirt, burying his face into his neck, breathing deeply as he said “…don’t you…wanna touch today?”

Wrong looked over at Shuichi with a mild amount of surprise, before snickering. Little minx. Trying to use sex to tempt him. The pain must be particularly bad today, huh? So cute…Wrong felt himself flush slightly at the attention, pulling Shuichi closer to him…but, well. “I’m actually pretty satisfied right now.” Wrong admitted, though this didn’t stop him from affectionately running his hand up and down Shuichi’s back, who was starting to tremble again, his movement hurting the ribbons of his legs, “Miss Tsumugi’s been letting me play around in her world lately, and I’ve been enjoying some of her toys. That’s what we’re watching, actually. At least the parts of it I particularly enjoy, anyway…”

Wrong held Shuichi close to himself, enjoying the scent of him. That was the part of the simulation that Wrong really found himself appreciating often: the small, warm smells that gave life to everything. That and the heat of Shuichi’s skin, his forehead warm and sticky with sweat under Wrong’s jaw while his pet breathed against him. It was all so…perfect. If Wrong didn’t know he had all the time in the world to play with him, he’d admittedly have a hard time keeping his hands to himself from minute to minute, with Shuichi so entirely unable to refuse him. But for now, he really was satisfied…

Still…“How about this?” Wrong said, sounding delighted with himself as he said, “Let’s make this a game. While we watch this, you touch yourself. If you can make yourself cum before the video is over, I’ll reset your body, okay? There’s lots of sex in this one, so it should make it easy. Okay?”

Shuichi sighed…he didn’t like the idea of trying to get off to videos of his friends being hurt…but he was long, long past the days where he’d refuse just on principal. Still, he made one last hail mary, bringing himself to kiss the man on the neck, licking at his skin a little, ignoring his own hatred that settled deep in his stomach as he said, breathlessly, “…want _you_ to touch me…just you and me…”

The man who shared a face with him chuckled, his face reddening again. Ah…admittedly, that move was harder to ignore. It’d be nice to reward Shuichi for his behavior…but that would discourage him from listening when Wrong told him to do something. So…ah, oh well. “Sorry, but no. You’re gonna play the game, Shuichi. It’s a pretty long video, you’ll have time. Maybe even multiple times! Like the star of the show might say: I believe in you!”

Shuichi closed his eyes, feeling his heart sink slightly.

Kaito.

The man laughed. “Relax, he likes it by the end of it. Sort of. The last few days especially were a lot of fun. That’s in real time days, by the way, not your time. This took two weeks to play through, and almost seven months in game. But it was worth it. Alright, we comfy?” he asked cheerfully to the broken, battered man not strong enough to do much more then lean against him, struggling to remain conscious, “Good! Let’s start the show.”

-

Miu was working on optic nerve cables, experimenting with a new idea of…okay, like, when you fall asleep, right? A part of your brain gets shoved into VR, where you could, hypothetically, still work on invention blue prints while your body wasted time with all that ‘sleeping’ bullshit it wanted to do all the time. It was perfect! She already had all of the tools she needed for the idea…it was just the fucking brain refusing to cooperate. The body was at rest, but it was like the brain needed to rest too or all the sleep was pointless, which was -bullshit- the brain just needs to STEP THE FUCK UP already, maybe it, just…minimal parts were used, or…

As she mumbled and hissed angrily at her equipment, her genius brain whirring away hotly as she tried to work out to herself some way to get around its stupid biological limitations, a knock suddenly pulled her out of her thoughts.

Fully intending to shout down whoever dared disturb her in the middle of her humanity-saving work, Miu opened the door with a scowl already on her face, which immediately melted into confusion as stood in front of her, worrying the joints in his fingers and staring at the ground, looking way more timid then she had ever seen the tall man look before, Kaito Momota said, “Hey Miu…could you help me?”

“Shit, you’re back? I was starting to think you were just straight up dead.” Miu admitted, standing aside to let the man in, glancing out the door to see who else was around. In the distance, she saw Tenko and Himiko, both staring at them, wide-eyed, clearly having been watching Kaito wait for her outside. Scrunching up her nose at the two nosy rug-munchers, Miu stuck her tongue at them, threw up her middle finger, and then slammed the door closed.

Turning back to Kaito, who seemed to be more interested in looking around her lab then elaborating whatever he needed help with, Miu said, “So, we’re fucking or-??”

Kaito looked up at her, startled, before he groaned, putting his hands over his eyes as he said, clearly frustrated with himself, “…yeah? If…if you’re still okay with that? I mean, you said…ugh, sorry, it doesn’t matter what you said. If, like, _now_ , you’re still up to it… this is so fucking weird…”

It wasn’t, admittedly, the most ‘romantic’ atmosphere, nor even that particularly sexual. Miu was just staring at Kaito, who seemed to be in hot debate with himself, clearly neither of them even actually remotely interested in the idea. Oh, sure, Miu could be into the idea, if she wanted…but believe it or not, for all her raunchiness and total ease with making other people uncomfortable with sex talk, she didn’t _actually_ enjoy sleeping with someone who didn’t find her attractive on some level. And Kaito…he looked like he’d rather be asleep right now, honestly. He looked exhausted. “Don’t you sleep, wherever you go? You look even worst then the last time you were back, and you looked like absolute dog shit then.”

“Gee, thanks Miu.” Kaito muttered, rubbing at his eyes as he admitted, “I…I don’t think I do? Is it possible that I don’t?” Kaito asked, his shoulders relaxing a little at the change in conversation, finding it easier to look Miu in the eye as he explained, “I don’t remember ever sleeping when I’m gone, and when I’m back, I’m so tired that I feel sick. That’s partly why I need your help. I can’t go back tonight. I can feel myself going crazy. I need a nights sleep, or I’m going to lose it. I know that’s…probably not a great reason to ask you to do this-“

“Uh, damn right it isn’t. You should be asking me because I fucking look like this!” Miu said, motioning up and down to herself, clearly a prize for any man to have, what the fuck, obviously?? “Seriously, why are you looking at me like I’m some ten foot sumo wrestler about to punch you in the fucking teeth!? I’m not gonna bite you…okay, no.” She snickered, giving him a leering grin, “I may bite you. But it’ll be fucking sexy and you’ll be calling my name when I do it. So stop fucking looking like this is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you and get on your fucking knees already!”

She said this, all violent energy and bluster, cackling at the end…but paused at the look on Kaito’s face at this. He looked…intimidated.

“Oh for fucks sake.” Miu muttered, running a hand over her face, “Are you a fucking virgin? Don’t bother lying if you are, space-brain, I’ve got ways of telling!”

Kaito frowned at this, his eye twitching at a recent memory…before shaking his head. “No…” he muttered.

Okay, that was manageable then. Miu wasn’t a fan of deflowering people. She knew damn well that she’d be a difficult first time for anyone. BDSM was a wonderful thing, and _her_ thing, but it definitely wasn’t something someone should do for their first time. “Alright, well, perfect. What are you waiting for? I already told you to get on your knees. Or have you got cold feet and are just wasting my time!?”

“Miu, come on. Does it have to be wei-“

“Hey! I’m helping you out! My time is precious, you know!? I could be doing plenty of other things right now!” Miu shouted, pointing towards the door as she snarled, “If you don’t wanna do things my way, fucking get out of here already! Ask someone else to do it!”

Kaito furrowed his brow, glaring at her…but his eyes glanced at the door and his resolve broke, his eyes falling back to the floor as he just muttered, “yeah, okay.” Before getting down onto his knees on the floor, sitting on his ankles.

Yeah…that was slightly more appealing. Miu blushed at the sight of the strong, proud astronaut, obedient and waiting on her. The atmosphere in the room shifted, at least in her mind, and yeah…she could see this being a lot of fun. And, sure, right now he looked pissed and uncomfortable, but he was going to like it too, once things really got started, she was certain of that.

Let’s see, let’s see, what else could she do to turn herself on more… “Take off that weird, gravity defying jacket of yours and, like, all the rest of your shirts too. How many fucking layers does a person even need? Especially when you have a body like that hiding under all of them?” she cackled, standing in front of him, looming, with her hands crossed underneath her rack, frowning as she saw him glaring up at her again, “W-what? What’s with the look?! I’m asking you to take your clothes off so we can have sex! That’s not weird! It’s literally the first part of the process, isn’t it!?”

Kaito sighed, “Yeah, sorry, just…give me a second.”  
  


As he stripped layers, tossing his jacket, button up, and finally shirt aside, Miu circled around him, taking in his body appraisingly. Shit, the guy really was hot, actually. Some grade-A meat on the menu, even with his stupid fucking haircut. He had strong, defined back and shoulder muscles, too. And his neck…hmmm… “Ya know what? I think I got the perfect accessory for you! Hold on, wait right here.”

She went to the back part of her lab, where there was a miscellanies surplus of random resources and equipment that could, but often didn’t, help her with her inventions. Where was it, where…ha! It still had some wire connected to it, it’s original use being to fasten those wires securely to various points in the body, even if they thrashed, but the use had never come up yet, and so she ripped those off, clearing it nicely.

Taking the now clean, simple brown collar back to Kaito, who was back to just staring at the floor, half dressed and frustrated, Miu went up behind him and said, “This will look perfect on you! Your weird, clingy energy always did remind me of a do-“

When Kaito felt the collar go around his throat, he freaked the FUCK OUT.

“No! GET OFF!” He grabbed the thing and yanked it from Miu’s hands, hurling it as far away from himself as he could as he shot up, backing away from her and covering his throat with his hand, his eyes wide and panicked. He didn’t want the choker back on he couldn’t he didn’t want it he didn’t want it, “Don’t you FUCKING DARE!” he screamed at Miu, his hands shaking.

Miu, in turn, was suddenly cowering, her whole body shaking as she also took a few quick, frightened steps back, as she asked, voice trembling, “W-what!? W-what did I do?! It’s just a dog c-collar, you spaz, there’s no need to y-yell!” 

“Why would you…you can’t just sneak that onto someone!” Kaito sputtered, feeling embarrassed at his reaction, but unable to calm down, anger and fear rolling together as he swallowed hard, “That’s not fucking cool!”

“W-well, fine! If you don’t like the way I have sex, go! Get out of here!” Miu screamed, face red and eyes stinging with frightened tears as she pointed a shaking hand to the door, “Go fucking beg someone else for sex, you whore! S-see you in another week!”

“Fine! Fuck you!” Kaito shouted, just furious and wishing he could hit her, his fists clenched as he went for the door. “Thanks for nothing!”

“When you come back, you better be ready to crawl on your hands and knees, or I’m never letting you back in here!”

“Good!!”

Kaito slammed the door behind him, walking down the path to her lab before he remembered…fuck. His clothes.

God, fucking…he looked back at the door, his heart still pounding furiously. Should he go demand his shirts and jacket back? No, he couldn’t handle talking to her right now. He had never punched a woman before and he didn’t want to start now, but fucking god damn it. What was wrong with her!? Ugh…fuck, now he was just out here in nothing but sweat pants and slippers…anyone who saw him was going to be able to guess what happened…

Kaito’s hid his face behind his hands a moment, just embarrassed…whore? How fucking dare she…he wasn’t a whore. She was the fucking whore. Fuck her…

…oh shit what did he just do?

Kaito stood on the sidewalk, still down the path of her lab, half dressed, not sure where to go next. He clutched his hair between his fingers, his palm digging into his eyes, a tremble starting in his body as the weight of what just happened started to settle in past the fury. What had he just done? He…he needed her help. Out of everyone, Miu had been the most easily willing…he…he couldn’t go back tonight…

But fuck, after a fight like that? He couldn’t go back to her either, right? He had his pride! You couldn’t just do anything to him, even if his situation was a little desperate right now! There had to be a line!

…he…he was definitely going to feel differently about that by tonight though…

…maybe if he went back and apologized…

No. Fuck no. There were limits! You couldn’t just…c-collar someone like that without at least warning them! It wasn’t okay!

…fuck, what was he going to do then?

…well, first of all, he had to go get a shirt, at least. Step number one: clothes. Fuck…maybe no one would see him get back to his dorm room like this. This was so fucking embarrassing…

-

Kaito didn’t have much luck getting back to his dorm without being seen, but as Kiibo, Himiko, Gonta and T-tsumugi all stared at him, Kaito moved quickly and kept his head down, focusing on his feet as he clenched his fists, just trying to get back to his dorm room.

“Kaito…is everything alright?” Kiibo asked, Himiko beside him lowering her hat in second-hand embarrassment, murmuring to Kiibo to leave him alone. Concerned for Kaito, the robot continued, “Did you lose your cl-“

“Shut up! It’s fine!” Kaito said, now just straight up closing his eyes, feeling ridiculous, “I got them wet, so I had to take them off. That’s all!”

He heard some snickering and refused to look up at the second floor, already certain he knew what kind of expression was going to be on Kokichi’s face as Kaito threw open the door to his room and then slammed it shut behind him, face bright red.

Then, just…glaring into his room for a minute, Kaito pressed his back into the wood of the door and let himself slide down, curling his knees into his chest and hiding his face into his arms.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, why was he always so stupid, this wasn’t working, he was going to go back tonight, he was going to go back because he was fucking dumb and impulsive and he should have just kept his mouth shut stupid, stupid, **_stupid_** -

Kaito felt a sob rip through him and hated himself a little more.

-

When Miu heard the door knock again, she scowled…and then smirked. Well, that hadn’t taken long, had it?

Squaring her shoulders, she went to the door and threw it open, saying as she did so, “Well, look whose back. You better be on your han-“

“So what happened, bitchlet?” Kokichi said, a hard smile on his face as he looked up at her, hands behind his back as he tilted his head curiously at her, “Kaito couldn’t get it up for your fat, ugly vagina?”

“Eep!” Miu squealed, taking a step back, realizing that it was not, in fact, a begging Kaito, but the fucking little rat himself. “N-no! W-we never even got started!” Suddenly, the fear left her, and she sneered at the little pissant as she said accusingly, “How did you know Kaito was here!? Are you watching me!?”

“Ugh, no. Seeing you any longer than I already have too? I wouldn’t put myself through that.” Kokichi said, picking at his fingers with a clear look of disgust on his face. “I overheard Himiko telling Kiibo she saw him come in here, and what do you know, Kaito shows up a minute later, half dressed and on the verge of tears. Maaaaaan, you must be a _really_ bad lay, huh?”

“I SAID we hadn’t even STARTED!” Miu shouted, embarrassed at how quickly already this rumor was spreading, stomping her feet as she said, “We were going too, but he freaked out on me out of nowhere! I just wanted to put a little dog collar on him! It’s, like, kinky-shit 101! You would have thought I fucking branded him with the way he reacted, the fucking loser!”

“Hmmm.” Kokichi said, adding that to the list of side effects of whatever was happening when Kaito was ‘away’. A sudden tension around Shuichi, a fear of collars, or, maybe just a fear of choking? All that on top of the fact that apparently Kaito was now willing to start chipping away at his challenge…though apparently not desperate enough to deal with Miu’s insensitive bullshit.

Okay. This was painting more of a picture.

…though, what Kokichi could possibly do with that picture was still up in the air. This was an impossible situation…still, it was all worth adding to the board.

Though, as for Shuichi…on his board was still the words ‘Trustworthy?’ written next to him. Kokichi hadn’t written it there: it had been on his board when he and Kaito had first ‘woken up’ on the hydraulic press (Kokichi, after a lot of searching through his memories, had decided this was where Kaito and Kokichi, as they were now, were born. Heh. At least their birth had given them realistic expectations for the future). So, again, Kokichi’s trust in Shuichi wasn’t actually _his_ trust, but…well, apparently some other version of Kokichi that he, and more likely then not his room, had been based on, _had_ trusted him. At least to a point.

And Kokichi wasn’t going to lie…at least not to himself. It would disappoint him, to have to erase the word next to the detective. It was a comfort, to think there was someone in this group he could rely on…

…but the way Kaito looked at him now…

Kokichi needed more information. It could be another Fake-Tsumugi situation, which was the theory Kokichi was leaning towards, but he didn’t actually have anything other then a gut feeling to back that up. He should talk to Kaito…

Later. His next visit ‘back’. Kokichi didn’t trust himself to talk to him without letting himself make more digs at the man then necessary. Their ‘relationship’ was already strained enough as it was. And Kokichi was really struggling to decide who he wanted to _be_ around the guy. He felt like he was on the verge of losing his shit, every time he was around the other man…

But that still didn’t change the fact that what was happening with Kaito was fucked.

So with that in mind, Kokichi put on his best imitation of an imitation of a smile, and with that disturbing look, said “Well, congratulations Miu! You definitely showed that ‘guy being tortured into sex by a murder robot’ who’s boss! You even managed to make him cry! That’s so funny! Next time you should tooootally just spit on him for good measure!” Kokichi encouraged, smirking at the flashes of guilt that he saw whip across her face for a moment.

Good. Dumb bitch.

“W-whatever! It’s not my fault! Oh, fuck you! Get out of here you little shit!” Miu cursed at him, slamming the door in his face.

Kokichi snickered to himself, and then left to go update his board.

-

At first, Kaito was totally fine with hiding in his room until the red in his eyes went away…but it wasn’t long before Kaito found himself just…weirdly uncomfortable. Sitting in the quiet of the enclosed space. Grabbing a spare of his t-shirt, button up, and jacket (he had plenty of the shirts, a few of the button ups, but this was his only spare jacket), he eventually left his room, not quite feeling put back together, but just…unable to be there anymore.

Kaito went to sit outside in the yard, feeling the sun on his neck as he considered things. The bright sunshine of the day, along with occasionally seeing his friends walk around, was far more relaxing then the four walls of his room, and Kaito took several long, deep breaths as he re-evaluated his situation.

Okay…okay…

…fuck.

He was just going to go back tonight. There was no getting around that. Kaito didn’t have the nerve to try his luck again with any of his other friends, not with how badly things had just gone with Miu. The more he analyzed the memory, the more stupid and embarrassed he felt. Of course Miu was going to try something like that. Kaito should have expected it going in. And because he had reacted like that, now…

…fuck he didn’t know what to _do_.

He just…had no power in this situation. He was entirely at everyone else’s mercy. He didn’t think any of the others would pull the same thing as Miu, where it was either have sex her way or go back to the dark at the end of the day, but…could he actually be sure of that? He…he didn’t actually know anyone that well…

Kaito put his hand into a fist and pressed it into his forehead, scowling as he tried to think about what this situation actually meant for him.

He was Kaito Momota! Ultimate Astronaut! He had his pride and he was entitled to keep it! He had to keep limits! To establish boundaries!

But at the same time, he…he didn’t really have wiggle room to _refuse_ anything…

Fuck, Fuck, _Fuck_.

Who could he ask next…Korekiyo was willing, but Kaito was a little afraid of him, for the same reasons he realized now he should have been afraid to ask Miu. He wasn’t ready to face whatever might be asked of him.

Ryoma had said he’d need time.

Shuichi…no.

Maki…that was going to be uncomfortable for a lot of reasons.

Kaede didn’t want to do it…

…Kirumi?

She was a serious, professional minded person with a desire to help people. She probably wasn't interested, like, physically, but she seemed like the type of person who at least would come at this thing with the mindset of just ‘get it done’, which Kaito was more then willing to settle for by this point. Also, she was very pretty…

…fuck, why did thinking that make Kaito feel ashamed? What, so now that because he was being _forced_ to pursue his friends, he wasn’t allowed to acknowledge their attractiveness? Just because they were having sex under circumstances where technically neither party was actually willing and…

A wave of repulsion ran through Kaito.

Okay. Prettiness aside then. Kirumi would probably be professional about it. That’s all Kaito could ask for by this point. He’d ask her the next time he was back.

For now…god he was tired. Hungry too, but that pain didn’t even compare to the exhaustion. There were worst places to take a nap then in the grass, in the sun. He’d just let himself nod off for a little while…get up in time for dinner…go into tonight rested and fed and, just, more stable then he was last time…

He’d be fine. Everything was going to be fine.

-

When the sun set, Kaito was still asleep, curled up into the grass. Several of his classmates stopped on their way to the dorm to look at him, wondering if they should wake him…but found the idea of talking to him right now too uncomfortable. So they let him be.

-

Midnight came, and Kaito left.

-

Kaito didn’t realize he was awake for awhile, the darkness of sleep not that different from the darkness of the chair. It was only when he tried to shift his weight that he realized what had happened, his stomach twisting with fear as he realized he couldn’t move.

He bit down hard on the wood between his teeth and tried to calm himself down.

He needed something to occupy his time while he was here. That was what he needed to do. Just...think about something else. He wanted to go over his astronaut training in his mind, to refresh facts to himself, but it was too hard to focus his brain like that in this state, even just starting. Kaito was starting to realize that, however the brain worked, it was hard to focus it in a constructive without some external stimuli to warm it up. At least it was for Kaito, anyway. That was probably why, even back when he was studying for the astronaut trainee exams, as determined as he was to absorb all the material he needed, he had still found it impossible to study without music in the background. Maybe the music had just been a way to keep his mind whirring even during moments where the problem in front of him had stumped him, stopping all thoughts in its tracks.

Music. Maybe he could keep his mind occupied trying to remember song lyrics. Just something easy and entertaining enough to warm his brain up, to keep his thoughts from spiraling in here. What were some songs he knew? He used to listen to the radio a lot, so there were plenty of pop songs noodling around in there to draw fr-AH!

Kaito’s whole body jumped against its bindings when a familiar weight suddenly placed itself down on his lap, warm legs now straddling his.

Sh…Shuichi?!

It had to be, right? Well, no, it didn’t have to be. Maybe it was Tsumugi? But Kaito couldn’t help but feel like the weight and the shape was wrong for someone’s Tsumugi’s size. Besides, it was probably dumb to think like that, but…Shuichi was the one who had sat in his lap during the brief moment the two had allowed him to see. So…just based on that…

Did that mean Tsumugi was behind him again? Could Kaito feel her?

If he was actually alone, Kaito could have probably convinced himself he did, but with the very real, very physical presence of Shuichi now on him, confusing the feeling of the hair on his arms shifting against his clothes for Tsumugi’s presence was more difficult. For now, it was just the smaller detective, just…sitting on him.

Kaito didn’t have much choice but to sit there and wait to see what would happen next. He didn’t feel…afraid, necessarily. He had only just arrived on the chair and his mind hadn’t started to slip away yet, and, yeah, sleeping during the day had helped his nerves _immensely_. He felt weirdly calm. Curious more then anything.

Right up until Shuichi’s hands started to wander.

Kaito felt himself pressing back into the chair, fruitlessly trying to limit access to himself, as Shuichi’s hands went onto his face, tracing his jawline, going up and around his ears. Just…playing with him. Exploring. Kaito felt his nerves start to ramp up when his fingers wandered over throat, touching and pressing, lightly, against his jugular, not to the point of harm, but just…a reminder to Kaito how vulnerable he was right now.

He was still, for the most part, okay though. It was weird to be handled like this, but it was a level of weird that was normal for Kaito’s time in the chair. Feeling Shuichi’s hands in his hair was actually almost soothing, in its own way. At least he wasn’t alone. Nothing hurt. If it just stayed at this level…

Involuntarily, violently, Kaito’s head jerked backwards into the chair, a warning sound deep from his throat, when Shuichi put his fingers lightly over his lips.

He hadn’t meant to do it. It had been a fear response, that part of his face feeling too personal, too private. But to his surprise, Shuichi reacted to the warning immediately. His hands disappeared from his face, the man’s weight just sitting on him, immobile.

And then, after a moment of confusing waiting, Shuichi’s shifted on his lap, and the weight was gone.

Shuichi was gone.

…

That…was that a good thing?

Kaito hadn’t wanted Shuichi to touch his lips. He…he didn’t really want to be touched at all, but the lips had been too much. But…now it was just dark. And quiet. And cold again, his body already missing the heat Shuichi’s body had provided.

…Shuichi?

…

…

Songs…he’d try the songs idea…

-

…he couldn’t think of any songs.

-

…did he even _know_ any songs!? He listened to the radio all the time. Had listened to music to study. Could remember his grandparents putting on old-timey music on their car trips together.

…but...

The more he analyzed these memories, the less…concrete they felt. He couldn’t find the details. He had listened to music his whole life. Sang along. Gone to karaoke.

But he knew he had done all these things in…the most vague ways. It was like trying to recall a childhood memory being told to you by your parents. If you remembered any of it at all, then half those memories were being influenced by the story your parents were telling, and all the accompanying details were fabricated patchwork, as real and accurate as a storybook page.

He had listened to music. Song along. Knew some of those songs by heart.

..so why couldn’t he…???

-

Fake fake fake fake

Fake-Tsumugi. That was what Kokichi had said. Kaito couldn’t get that word out of his mind, now that it occurred to him, his pulse racing in the dark, trying to swallow and breath through the fucking _bit_.

Fake fake fake fake fake fake fake fake

He had known songs, he had _known_ them. Why couldn’t he…why COULDN’T he!?

Kaito tried to hum to himself. The music was there, but it wasn’t…anything specific. Just sounds that vaguely sounded pretty together. Not a real song. Something he had made up.

Fake.

Fake fake fake fake fake fake

-

Kaede. He’d ask Kaede to play him song songs when he got back. He’d fix this. He’d learn songs. So what if he couldn’t remember any!? He’d fucking learn some and then this wouldn’t be scary anymore! His memories, he…none of it wouldn’t feel real anymore! He’d make his own fucking memories! He’d learn his own fucking songs!

He wasn’t fake!

Kokichi!?

He suddenly, desperately, desperately wanted Kokichi’s assurance he wasn’t fake. Kokichi would know. Kaito didn’t know why he thought that, but he did. Kokichi believed Tsumugi had been fake. That there was two Tsumugi’s. That implied other Tsumugi was real, right? To call the one that had hurt them fake? The one who ran her hands through his hair and could make glass appear and disappear and make his classmates unable to hear him when he talked to them. SHE was fake. SHE was the fake one! Kokichi had called her that! Fake-Tsumugi! _Fake fake fake_!

Kaito wasn’t like her!

Kokichi please…please come get him. Please. His thoughts were scaring him. He couldn’t…he didn’t know any songs…he needed Kaede’s help. She’d know some. She could teach him some, and then he wouldn’t be…Kokichi would assure him he wasn’t…

Help help help please please he was losing it please take him out of here please please

-

Shuichi was back.

Kaito knew because of the sudden weight in his lap again, the man taking his favorite seat, straddling his legs around Kaito’s hips. Kaito felt…elated. Just so relieved that Shuichi had come back. Kaito could care less if Shuichi just wanted to touch him. Welcomed the distraction from his hysteria. From humming fake, nonsense songs. From thinking fake, nonsense things.

He realized what had happened.

He hadn’t been good.

Shuichi and FAKE Tsumugi had told him, right? That things would be better if he was good?

He hadn’t been good.

He just wanted another chance to be good. Please. Please give him another chance.

This time, when Shuichi went to touch his face, he held still, keeping himself calm. The touching was unsettling, but not as unsettling as the void. Shuichi wanted to touch? Okay. Okay. He could be good. He held still when his fingers touched onto his face again, knowing where this was going this time. It was comforting, anyway, knowing what Shuichi wanted. It was the stuff that Kaito couldn’t predict that scared him the most.

Sure…what Shuichi clearly wanted from Kaito was…

Kaito didn’t know how he felt about it anymore.

He mostly just didn’t want to be alone.

This time, when Shuichi brushed his finger over Kaito’s lip…Kaito leaned in. Shaking, not quite sure…what he was hoping to accomplish by doing so. Just knowing he couldn’t be alone right now.

Please.

Don’t leave him alone.

His brain was going to eat itself.

The thought came by itself, probably meant to be a metaphor, but in the darkness, the second it occurred to him, Kaito suddenly had vicious, awful images of worms in his skull, devouring his weightless, rambling thoughts, taking away all the bits of Kaito that he considered ‘himself’. That was what it felt like, sitting in the darkness. Like worms were devouring his brain. And if Shuichi and his little touches left, that would be all that was left. Just the darkness and the worms…

So Kaito leaned in, a small, needy whine humming the back of his throat. Don’t leave, don’t leave, don’t leave-

The fingers brushed off his lips, and rested on his cheek, joined by a thumb as Shuichi (it _had_ to be Shuichi, right? Tsumugi wore those long fingernails. The idea there was a third person was unthinkable) rubbed his skin a bit. Gentle. The touch was so light and gentle, and again, Kaito found himself leaning into it. Don’t leave, don’t leave, don’t leave, no, NO!

The hand pulled away and Kaito whined again, more urgently, calling out to Shuichi. He couldn’t he couldn’t he couldn’t, please, Shuichi, he couldn’t, his brain was eating itself, please come back, don’t leave him alone in the dark anymore please-

Kaito’s body jerked in shock when he felt movement at the back of his head, and he went perfectly still when he realized the strap around his head was loosening. After a moment he felt the light weight of ribbons brush against his neck, and there was a sudden, firm pressure around the bit in his mouth, and a hand on his jaw, helping him dislodge his teeth from the ingrain of the wood.

And just like that, the bit was out.

Oh god, his jaw _ached_. Kaito moved it slowly, testingly, feeling weirdly like his teeth were going to fall out of his head, and his tongue, fuck, did his tongue always feel like that? But he closed his mouth and swallowed his spit for the first time in he didn’t know how long, and the sensation was such an honest relief that he felt his eyes burn with grateful tears. He swallowed and swallowed until he realized that maybe he was overdoing it, feeling weirdly like he was choking on his own throat, and he tried to clear it, trying to breath deeply and humming hard against the difficult mixture of phlegm and dryness. His tongue tasted his teeth and that was _weird_ , and he-

He jerked backwards when he felt fingertips on his lips again.

The hand disappeared at the movement, and Kaito felt the immediate, terrified regret as, having no idea how it would sound, he tried to say through the humming of his dry, foreign feeling throat, “’m sorry, m sorry, I got scared, I’m sorry sorry sorr…” Kaito kept trying to talk but his throat gave out on him. And, again, he couldn’t hear how it was all coming out. For all he knew, he could be grunting gibberish. It was so hard to talk when you couldn’t hear yourself.

He grit his teeth and whined, trying to get his voice working again, scared, scared, was Shuichi gone? Was the bit going back in? Please give him another chance he was _trying_ to be good he _was_.

And then the finger was back. Tracing his jaw line this time, and though Kaito jumped a little at the touch, at least this time he didn’t lean away (leaning was maybe the wrong word, considering the metal strap of his collar to the chair. More moving his head side to side). He held perfectly still, tense, letting Shuichi touch. Eventually, the finger traced back to Kaito’s mouth, running his finger over his bottom lip…before pushing its way in.

  
It was weird, feeling someone’s fingertip on the edge of your teeth, and Kaito didn’t quite know what was expected of him when the finger just seemed to…sit still there. Waiting patiently for something. He really didn’t understand. He just had a finger in his mouth now. Was he meant to do something?

Gently, not meaning to hurt, just…out of ideas in his mad, worm-soaked brain, Kaito bit down.

Again, it wasn’t a painful bite. It was more like a hold. And once he had done it, Kaito realized he didn’t have a second part to this idea. So he just held the finger between his teeth, feeling stupid and confused, and after a moment he felt a…vibration. Coming from the hand.

He was pretty sure Shuichi was laughing at him.

Kaito felt a kiss on his forehead, and then the finger pushed in farther, dislodging his teeth against it. The finger pressed against Kaito’s tongue, and that was the moment Kaito remembered he actually had a tongue in the first place. That made more sense. Why had Kaito bitten him? Obviously Shuichi kept rewarding him when Kaito played nice, and biting wasn’t very nice. Honestly, he was lucky Shuichi hadn’t left the second he did…

Feeling stupid and embarrassed, Kaito ran his tongue over Shuichi’s finger.

His saliva a little more under control now with the bit gone, Kaito lapped at the finger, at first shyly, testingly…but when it wasn’t pulled away, more enthusiastically. Happy to just be…doing something. Happy to have a task. Something to occupy himself in the darkness. He coated the finger with saliva, and then, when it occurred to Kaito he might have done it too much, he pressed his lips around the finger and sucked at it, trying to clean it off. He did all of this earnestly. Sincerely. He wanted Shuichi to stay. He didn’t want to be left alone in the darkness. He was sincerely happy to do this.

The finger held still for all of this, and then Kaito was startled (rewarded) with a second one, Shuichi’s middle finger gently pushing in to join his index. The long, slender digits together were more of a mouthful, and Shuichi was more invasive this time, touching the back of Kaito’s tongue in a way that worried his gag reflex, but Kaito swallowed it down and continued with even more enthusiasm, happy to do it.

If this was what it took, if this is what Shuichi wanted, what would make him stay, that was fine. Kaito was _f_ _ine_ with it. Anything to keep the worms out of his brain. To keep the suffocating _nothingness_ at bay.

And then the fingers were pulled away, and Kaito was afraid he had done something wrong. Was it too much? Had he not licked enough? Shuichi??

And then two hands were on his face, one hand covered still in his saliva, and his mouth was gently guided shut by the palms of the hands, and Kaito tried not to feel afraid when he realized he was being kissed.

A second ago, he would have absolutely argued that a kiss was a good thing, a welcome relief from the nothingness…but now, the reality of having Shuichi (was it? Was this Shuichi?) pressed up against him, gently kissing against his bottom lip, was just…it felt more real, then the fingers did. The fingers had felt like a task. Almost impersonal.

This… Kaito could taste Shuichi’s breath, could feel the warmth of him, and it felt…

Kaito didn’t know how it felt. Nice? He supposed it did, but it also…he felt suddenly small.

Helpless.

He wished this wasn’t happening.

Not the kiss. Well, yes, the kiss, but, more just…why had things turned out this way? What had he done wrong? Why the chair, the darkness, the challenge that he had no hopes of completing, not and being able to live with his choices…

Oh. Maybe that was why.

Maybe this was all because of what he did to Kokichi.

Maybe he hadn’t been good the whole time.

He wondered if Kokichi had felt like this? Small and helpless and weak against what Kaito was doing. Just some…thing. That was what the kiss made him feel like. Like he was just some…’thing’.

Filling a role.

Something…not real.

He didn’t _want_ this. He wanted to go home. He wanted to never be alone in the dark again. He wanted a kiss, yes, because he wanted to feel someone and know that he wouldn’t be left to the devouring worms in his head.

But _fuck_ more then anything he wanted all of this to be over. To feel normal and in control of himself again.

He wanted to be Kaito again.

Eighteen hours, eighteen hours, eighteen hours. That number was terrifyingly small and he wasn’t even done with this round yet. His time limit hadn’t even started and he was already feeling crushed by its limits. Kokichi was never going to sleep with him. Hell, half the class wasn’t going to do it, Kaito was starting to realize. It was just going to be eighteen hours of desperate, frightened daylight where he tried to convince people half disgusted by him to sleep with him, and then days and days of darkness, forever, and this wasn’t fair you couldn’t do this to a person it was like being a doll but he wasn’t he wasn’t a doll he was a person you couldn’t do this to a person, you couldn’t, he couldn’t he couldn’t he couldn’t

Kaito was crying, and maybe that was why the kiss stopped.

Shuichi’s hands were still on his face though, and Kaito hiccupped, trying to pull himself under control as he tried to say, “I’m sorry, don’t stop, I want you to stay.” Not at all sure how much he managed to actually convey. It all felt like vibrations, like humming whines to him. His tongue still felt foreign to him.

Kaito felt pressure around his head and felt Shuichi’s heat approach his face again. He thought the man was going for another kiss, and he was, but Kaito was surprised to feel it press against the cloth covering his stinging, wet eyes, first one then the other. Kaito started to shake. The last time Shuichi had done that…

And then the hands pulled away.

Kaito whined. He waited, hoping for the hands to come back…nothing. “Shuichi?” he tried to say into the darkness. Nothing. No touch, no response.

Kaito sat in the chair and trembled…but…it wasn’t as bad as before. He did feel better, after all that. The presence of another person a stabilizing, welcome relief, at least in the immediate aftermath. He felt a little less crazy, even if he was alone again. The pressing darkness wasn’t as overwhelming.

Maybe he’d be allowed to go home soon…

-

At least the bit was gone.

-

He had a brief moment where he tried to sing again and then he remembered and he stopped.

He still felt okay though.

He wasn’t losing it again.

He felt okay.

-

Time went by and the stabilizing feeling went away and there were worms in his head they were devouring him his brain was eating itself and he called out to Shuichi and eventually he screamed out for Tsumugi no idea if he was even saying the words right unable to hear himself just moving his tongue and clicking his teeth and vibrating deep into his throat and at some point he found himself calling to Kokichi, please, Kokichi? Kokichi Kokichi Kokichi he was scared he was sorry he was scared please Kokichi??

And Kaito kept screaming for Kokichi because suddenly his maddened brain was _convinced_ that the smaller man could hear him. That he could help and just didn’t _want_ too. That Kokichi was in the room with him and was just mocking him, refusing to make his presence known. Kaito told the Kokichi he was certain was in the room that he was sorry, that he hadn’t meant to hurt him. That he had been afraid. That he was afraid now. He told Kokichi he could hurt him back if he wanted. He could do whatever he wanted to him.

Anyone could do anything they wanted to him.

Miu?

Anything anything anything anyone could do anything to him anything at all, just take him out of the darkness, please, please, don’t leave him here, don’t leave him here, take him out of the dark, just long enough to learn a song, any song, Kaede? He couldn’t remember any songs Kaede, so if Miu wanted to put him on his knees, to put the collar on, that was fine, anything, anything, let him out, let him learn a song, let him stop feeling weird and inhumane and fake, Kokichi? Kokichi!?

Help help help help

please

please

help

-

When he came back, he didn’t scream this time. He just curled into a ball and waited for, tensly, for his body to adjust. Just wait it out. The lights would stop hurting soon. The noises would stop booming soon. The TV would turn off on its own, just ignore it. Just wait, Kaito, you can do this, you got this, it’s over now, you did it…

Recovery was a lot faster this time, it not even being noon yet. What was it, ten…ten thirty? It was hard to get his eyes to focus on the thin line of the clock, at first, and then he had stared at it in confusion, realizing after a moment that…he was really, genuinely struggling to remember which line meant what…wait, did that small line mean it was nine or ten? Try…try counting them. The top one was twelve, so one…two…three…

Kaito’s eyes blurred at seven and he lost track of where he was. Fuck.

Kaito put his head in his hands, groaning. Nine or ten. It was definitely one of them. His head hurt…it was like trying to think through a layer of cotton.

When he stood up from the floor, he found that his body was facing similar issues as his head. He felt suddenly motion sick, just at the movement of rising up. And his arms felt weirdly hollow.

His neck hurt. He wondered how long he had been gone.

…he didn’t care. He wouldn’t ask anyone.

What difference would it make.

…would…would it be weird to seek out Kirumi this early in the day?

He’d love to just get this over with early, to know that he would have the rest of today and all of tomorrow to stay. It was weird to ask her to sleep with him first thing in the morning…but was it ever not going to be weird. He was certain she wouldn’t mind. Like he had reasoned before, Kirumi was a serious, professional kind of person. She’d understand why he would be eager to just get it done.

It’d be fine.

Collecting himself, only fumbling a little bit to get his hands to work around the doorknob, Kaito headed out.

-

“Um…Hey, Kirumi…” Kaito greeted, having found the Ultimate Maid hanging out in the kitchen. He had an awkward smile on his face, because he wasn’t sure…how to start this conversation as he continued, “Do you think we could talk about something?”

Kirumi’s expression was cold and distant, but, that was typical of her. The small sigh in her shoulder, however, wasn’t, crossing her hands over herself as she said, with a hint of exasperation in her voice, “Certainly, Kaito. Please, go ahead.”

That…that wasn’t exactly an _encouraging_ start, but…

“Heh…uh…look, there’s no none weird way to start this, but, I was wondering if you could hel-“

“Before you ask, Kaito.” Kirumi interrupted, something…hard in her tone. In her eyes. “Please understand that while I am duty bound to serve others, per my occupation and my Ultimate Talent, those services do not, and have never, included access to my body for anyone’s pleasure.”

Kaito froze, shocked. Not about her claim, of course, just that…she would feel the need to… “I, I know that! I’m sorry, I…I wasn’t going to suggest it did, I’m sorry if I…”

“I felt this needed clarifying, since the stereotype of the submissive maid is so…prevalent, especially in this day and age.” She said, a sudden, old anger in her eyes as she said stiffly, “And I’ve often found myself in the past explaining to employers that my occupation as a maid does not substitute me for a prostitute.”

“I…no, I wasn’t… wasn’t trying to imply…”

“So, you were not going to ask me to be the first person off your board, because of my professional occupation as someone who serves?” Kirumi asked. The cold, dry disbelief plain in her voice.

Kaito stared at the floor. Embarrassed and ashamed as he whispered, “I…” he couldn’t bring himself to look at her. He…he hadn’t meant too… he…“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I wasn’t trying too. I mean, I didn’t want to ask you because you were a maid. I just…you’re always so helpful with everything else, but that’s…yeah, that’s p-probably not a good reason to think you’d help me with something like this…”

The look was more then cold. It was an open glare, Kaito now realized…but it softened at his explanation, Kirumi sighing, the tension in her shoulders leaving her as she said, “I want to help you, Kaito. I don’t envy your position. But I feel like being the first crossed off your board would imply something…unpleasant. About my place here, among everyone. I apologize if you can’t understand my concerns, and I apologize for the position I know this puts you in. I take no joy in your discomfort.”

Kaito flinched at this. It…it was a little more then ‘discomfort’…b-but he couldn’t bring himself to say that. He already felt fucking dirty now for asking her, when she was so clearly offended by the very idea. God, he was so fucking stupid…why had he thought Kirumi would be a safe bet?

…well…for all the reasons she had just said.

Fuck.

Kaito threw on a grin, feeling ashamed already and not wanting to guilt the Ultimate Maid any more then he already had, giving her a thumbs up and a wink as he said, “No worries, Kirumi! I totally get it, that was a shitty thing for me to do! And it’s nothing I can’t handle! I’ll just…can I…would it be okay for me to ask again later? When I have more names crossed off, maybe, so you helping me isn’t…weirder then it already is?”

Kirumi considered this, looking at him intently…before sighing. “Yes, it’s alright if you ask again later. Just know, I may not feel differently about this, even with being later down the line of your…conquests?”

“Oh, no, fuck no, uh…partners?” Kaito supplied, his grin now barely more then a grimace. “Just…partners.”

“Certainly. Even with additional ‘partners’ crossed off your board, I may still feel uncomfortable with the idea. But…I promise I will seriously think about it before you ask again.”

Kaito laughed awkwardly, “Great! Thank you, Kirumi! That’s…that’s all I can ask for!”

When Kaito left the kitchen, he shoved his palm into his eyes, just…fucking humiliated. Fuck. God, he felt gross…all of that had felt so fucking gross…ugh…

Well, after that fucking embarrassing rejection…now what? He went over his mental list and, just, didn’t feel good about _any_ of his options anymore. No one felt like a sure thing anymore. God, he wasn’t sure he could face a rejection like that again today…

But, then…where could he…

…Shit.

-

Just breath…just be calm…

Kaito stared at the metal of the door for a long time, fiercely arguing with himself. He could walk away right now. Just…just accept he was leaving tonight. Just go.

…breath…calm…

Gritting his teeth and closing his eyes, Kaito knocked, too hard, against Miu’s laboratory door.

Rubbing his arm soothingly, Kaito waited for awhile, thinking for a moment that maybe Miu wasn’t home and the choice was taken out of his hands anyway, feeling…conflicted by that idea, when suddenly the door opened.

Kaito looked at Miu, and then seeing her smug, leering smile, his eyes dropped to the ground.

“C…can I come in?” He mumbled.

“Only if you crawl.” She answered.

-

Breath! Fuck, fuck, just breath!

It was forty minutes hour later, and Kaito was covered in a layer of sweat, staring up at Miu with wild, desperate eyes as she milked him through his second orgasm, drool pooling in his mouth as he struggled to swallow, his heart POUNDING in his chest as he gasped, urgently, “AH! AH! M-Miu, PLEASE!”, fighting his bonds as shocks of painful pleasure shot through his stomach and into his chest.

It was too much! He couldn’t handle much more then this. He could barely catch a breath!

“I told you already, begging doesn’t work on me!” She cackled, pulling on the leash of his collar, forcing him to sit up, his arms going numb from laying on top of them, Kaito closing his eyes as he realized she was going in for another kiss, her tongue pushing into his mouth as his whole body trembled and spasmed, his hips jerking, trying to move away from her touch, as his cock throbbed and spiked painfully at her attention. “And I ain’t letting your shit-dick touch me until you’re three deep in and I’m riding through wave number two!” 

“H-RrNNNNGG, HAh! I can’t, I can’t, oh my god, M—miu, please!”

“Oh yes you can! You’re about to learn that body is good for ALL SORTS OF THING!” She laughed, smiling widely down at him as she said, “Now, let’s turn you around! Fuck if I get why he keeps bringing me them, but I’ve got a brand new gift from Pooichi yesterday that I wanna try on you~”

As, with a shocking amount of strength, she turned him over, Kaito stared into the floor, actually finding it difficult to keep his knees in place just from how slick and wet everything was, Kaito wondering what Shuichi could have possibly given her that she would want to use on-AHHHH!

FUCK!!??

"Miu, out, take it out, TAKE IT OUT!"

"Would you STOP WHINING!? It'll feel good in a second!" She insisted, pulling at the leash again but keeping her elbow on his lower back, arching him as he shuddered, looking back at her wide eyed as she said, "This would be more fun if you'd just relax already! God, you're so ungrateful! You asked me for this, didn't you?!"

And then she spat at him.

-

By the time Kaito limped his way back to the dorm, Miu’s name, written in looping, swirling neon bright pink, was crossed out by a thick, black line.

Kaito just stood there, looking at it for awhile. 

He...didn't know how to feel about it...that was a good thing, right? It had...it had worked. It had been worth it.

...

He reached out his hand and, just using his palm, he tried to erase her name entirely. Just make it disappear. But the ink didn't smudge at all, and so Kaito let his hand drop, staring at it.

...then he tried again.

Nope. Still there.

Kaito thought about trying to rip the board down again. Just pull at it until either the wood splintered or the bones in his fingers did...but as quickly as the anger was there, it bottomed out of him. And he just stood there feeling tired and weirdly hollow. 

...maybe it'd work if he tried it with his sleeve. 

Kokichi rubbed at her name as hard as he could, using the button on his sleeve to try to scratch at it. He rubbed it so hard that his teeth grit and his brow furrowed, disturbing the bruise on his face where she had slapped him. Come on...come on...

Still there.

And in a flash of rage, Kaito punched the board, right where the name was, and screamed, "FUCK YOU!"

And then he ran into his room as quickly as he could, because he didn't want anyone to see him.


	6. Miu is a Bad Time Too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger Warning! 
> 
> This is an explicate chapter between Miu and Kaito, and while a very thin argument could be made that this is dub-con and not non-con, it was still written with the intention of disturbing the reader. If you'd rather skip this chapter, there is nothing here actually all that plot relevant, and the whole chapter can be skipped without losing track of the plot. If you just want to read a summary of the chapter, skip to the end chapter notes for one!
> 
> Otherwise! Enjoy~
> 
> AND NOTE: I don't actually consider this story off hiatus, please do not expect regular updates to start again yet. I've just had this chapter sitting in my ready 'to go folder' for ages now and decided 'why not?'. This story is still being actively worked on. Just not at a pace where I feel comfortable regularly updating. Sorry for the inconvenience, thank you for your patience!

Kaito gets on his hands and knees and shuffles forward, and at first he doesn’t even feel bad about it.

He’s mostly just exasperated. Pissed off, yeah, but not because of his bruised dignity. He just fucking doesn’t get where Miu gets off, thinking this was an okay thing to demand of him? Who the fuck did she actually think she was? What was this stupid fucking power play supposed to prove?

He holds onto that angry, frustrated feeling. It feels better than the twist of nerves that settle into the bottom of his stomach when she closes the door behind him. Which is _stupid_. Why the fuck was he _nervous??_ As he sat on his knees in the middle of the room, not certain what he was expected to do from here and not all that curious to find out, he grit his teeth as he heard her cackling and thought to himself ‘What? You think you’re fucking _scary?_ You think _you’re_ overwhelming?’

‘Try taking a ride on the fucking hydraulic-press and see how fucking _brave_ you are during sex then, _cunt_.’

It’s an ugly thought, and maybe he should be ashamed of having it. But, the longer he sits there on his knees while she drags things out of the corner of her lab, the more pissed he gets. She’s shouting some nonsense about how she knew he’d be back and that despite him acting like a total virgin fucking loser last time, she’d _still_ show him a good time today, baby! And he has to close his eyes and take some calming breaths, resisting the urge to just stand back up and walk out of here.

It was her or the chair, and _god,_ Kaito needed a break from the chair. He so _desperately_ could not go to the chair today.

When Miu comes back, she slows down behind him, and he’s mildly satisfied to feel something like caution coming from her steps. He remembers that while Miu was loud and obnoxious and aggressive as all hell, she was also pretty easily cowed. Squaring his shoulders, he turns to glare at her, deciding that before this went any further, they needed to set some fucking _boundaries_ …

But his objection is caught in his throat when she puts her hand through his hair for a moment. There’s something confusing in the gesture, and he’s mostly taken off guard as he watched something go past his eyes and down his face, pulling back hard against his mouth— panic rips through him again, and as he pulls away from her he hears a small _click_ press together behind his ears as he races up, taking a few steps away from her as he glares daggers at her, reaching up to take the thing out of his mouth.

Miu, though, doesn’t look nervous at all, her stance wide and her arms crossed as she just raised an eyebrow at him. Scowling, she said, “If you take it off, I’m kicking you out again, nutsack.”

He hesitates for a moment… but then ignores her, taking the bit out by pulling it roughly down his chin, before shouting over her screeching demands that he leave, “I’ll do anything fucking else, okay!? Anything else! Not this!”

“Ugh, god, you’re such a bullshitter! First it was no to the collar, now it’s no to the gag! I can’t do _shit_ with you!!”

“I’ll put the collar on!”

This, at least, caused the inventor to pause. Miu raised an eyebrow, looking openly skeptical. “Yeah?”

Kaito nodded, reaching back and unclicking the latch of the bit, tossing it aside with some force before looking back at her. “Yeah! I’ll put on your stupid fucking collar and all that! Fuck!”

The inventor looked intrigued now, before going into the chest she had opened up and pulled out, shuffling through it. Finding the collar, she brought it over to him, twirling it around her index finger as she said, “I swear, if you fucking freak out on me again—”

“Just shut up and let me put it on.” Kaito demanded, taking some satisfaction watching her flinch and curl into herself slightly at the tone as he grabbed it from her.

It felt a little better to just put it on himself. He felt more in control of the situation this time, and he adjusted the brown collar to not fit so tightly against his neck. That was okay. It didn’t feel bad this time. He didn’t feel the need to bolt out of the room this time. That was okay.

Looking back at Miu, he asked, “Well? It’s on. Is that fucking doing anything for you?”

Miu snickered, and then laughed loudly, Kaito just standing there glaring at her as she laughed mockingly at him. After too long of this, she stopped and went back to the chest. “Take your shirts off! I got one more thing I want to put on ya!”

“I swear to fucking Angie’s god, Miu… can’t we just do this already? It doesn’t have to be this fucking weird.” Kaito sighed, running a hand over his forehead, starting to feel a small tension headache coming on. “And believe it or not, I don’t actually want to spend the rest of my day in here.”

“What do you think I am, a fleshlight!? You wanna come in here and ask me to fuck your little pickle dick, you gotta be ready to add some _fucking romance to it!_ ” Miu shouted back at him, finally finding what she was looking for. Standing up to give him a wink, holding up a pair of furry handcuffs, she said, “And this is the most romantic thing I can think of!”

“Hard pass.” Kaito said.

“Then get out of my lab!”

“No!”

“I said we’re doing this on MY terms, and if you don’t fucking suck it up, I don’t NEED YOU!”

“God DAMN IT, Miu! FUCK!” Kaito turned and kicked at a random metal machine that had made the mistake of being built right near where Kaito would stand one day, and the side of the metal jutted in slightly where Kaito had kicked. Kaito growling as Miu cowered a little, hoping that if he shot her a dirty enough look, she’d buckle. But even as her body physically trembled, there was a second where he saw her face harden, and he knew her demands hadn’t changed for a second as she suddenly straightened up, glaring right back at his intense look. The two stayed that way for a moment, staring each other down, waiting to see who would break first…

Kaito huffed and, taking off his shirts, shouted “…Fine! Fine! Whatever! Handcuffs too! Fucking god _damn it.”_

_“_ Ha-ha-ha! That’s right! The Ultimate Inventor always gets her way!” Miu cheered, walking towards him, a swagger in every step as she shouted, “Alright, fucker, freeze! Hands behind your back! Just remember that anything you say can and will result in holding me against you! No, really, behind your back…yeah, perfect. Tell me if it’s too tight!”

“O-ow! Too tight!”

“Good!” Miu cackled, taking a step back to give him a look over. Her snickering grin faded after a moment, and a blush ran hot through her face as she looked at him. “H-hey, ya know… you’re actually really not that bad looking, without all that extra shit on ya.”

“Yeah, you said something about that last time too…” Kaito muttered, somehow not exactly flattered by the compliment.

“Did I? That was a long ass time ago. Hey, so, what does happen to you when you leave?” Miu asked, running her fingers along his chest, thumb lining the muscles there appreciatively as she said, “No one wants to ask ya, you know that? All those pussy ass virgins are scared knowing will guilt them into having pity sex with you. I swear, no one around here as any idea how to have a good fucking time!!!”

Kaito flinched at that, his jaw twitching as he struggled between wanting to shout at her and…kind of wanting to go back into his room and hide. Come on… he didn’t want too… they didn’t have to be afraid of…

…he didn’t want to be the kind of guy who forced or coerced people into sleeping with him… when the _fuck_ had _that_ become his thing?

Fake-Tsumugi… please… this wasn’t who he wanted to “—urk!”

“Hey! Pay attention! Don’t get lost in your own head, space-case! This is Miu time!!” Miu demanded, pulling back at the collar until it choked at his skin. She was only able to do it for a minute though, before Kaito wrenched out of her grip, spinning on her with fury, ready to curse her the fuck out-

SLAP!

It was a really good hit by itself, but nothing was helped by the fact that Kaito was also just straight up exhausted and literally had his arms tied behind his back. As he stumbled to his right, eyes spinning, he knew before he fell that he wasn’t going to be able to keep to his feet, and once again found himself less alarmed and more just… exasperated. This sucked. This was such bullshit. His face now hurt, and landing was going to hurt, and he hated all of-

His legs lost their footing and he fell hard onto his side. Entirely unable to catch himself, his head hit the floor with a dull **thud.** As his vision doubled, a pain rocketing through his skull, he blearily thought, ‘ _Yeah… this might as well happen._ ’

“God, why are you such a f-f-freak!? Y-you overreact to e-everything!!” Miu screamed, eyes wide with panicked tears as she trembled, before stepping forward and kicking his knee a little, saying nervously, “Oh-my-god, a-are you still a-alive, you f-fucktard??”

Kaito took a deep breath, closed his eyes because the light of the laboratory hurt now, and said, “Miu, I will do literally _anything_ by this point if it will get you to hurry this the fuck up. I _just_ want to fuck you and leave, **please**.”

“Uh, rude?” Miu said, all of her nervous shivers and tears immediately gone when she realized he was alive and she wasn’t about to get into trouble. She smirked though, stepping forward and pushing her stiletto boots into his chest, listening to him grunt as she pinned him onto his back, the sharp end of her heel digging into his shoulder blade, “But, alright. From now on, I want you to call me Mistress. At least when we’re boning!”

“No-OW, FUCK! Fine, okay, alright- I don’t care, I _don’t_ care, I’ll call you that!”

“I’ll call you that, what?” Miu asked teasingly.

It took half a second for Kaito to follow, but he just grit his teeth and tried to control the aching pulse in his head as he grunted out, “I’ll call you that, mistress.” Stupid, stupid, this was _so fucking stupid_ -

“Nice! O-oh man, I like this view~” Miu gushed, her cheeks pinking prettily as she leered down at Kaito, who had just resigned himself by this point to just letting her say or do whatever. “ _Oh,_ I can feel myself getting _wet_. Hey, fucktoy?”

Kaito bit down the ‘don’t call me that’ and just said, annoyance in every word, “Yeah, ‘mistress’?”

“You ever eaten out a lady before?” Miu asked, moving her hands up her pink skirt and, with a lustful, leering smile at him, starting to shimmy her black panties off herself.

Kaito had never seen a vagina in real life, by this point, but he’d rather die than admit to her that she was the second person he had ever slept with, and the first woman. Still, he couldn’t quite bring himself to make up any stories about any other ‘ladies’ he had fucked either, the impulse feeling weird. So, he decided to just lie by omission, turning away from her and just making a small, disapproving ‘tsk sound from the back of his throat.

“What’s with the look!? You’re getting some fucking prime-time meat here, and you turn your nose up at it!? God, you’re so _fucking_ ungrateful!” Miu scowled, getting down on her knees, planting each one next to his ears, as she suddenly grabbed at his jaw tightly and forced him to look up at her, flinching slightly at the sheer _hatred_ radiating off his gaze she said, “U-use your tongue, okay!? You know that, r-right!? Y-you have a-any idea what the fuck you’re doing down there!?”

_Fuck_ , he did not want to do this. But if he kept arguing and shooting down every single thing she tried, Miu was going to get frustrated and kick him out again, and a few days from now he’d be back in here, trying to do this all over again. He couldn’t keep doing this to himself. He just needed this _done_. So, he swallowed down the bile in his throat and said, “Sure, fuck, whatever! My tongue! Got it!! How hard can it be!?”

“So this _is_ the first time you’ve licked clit! Well, don’t worry about it, astro-shit, I’m as sweet as can be! It’ll be like licking a lollipop! And, here, we’ll make it a little easier, since this is your first time.” Miu said, turning Kaito’s shoulders and taking his arms out from behind his back. Using a method he couldn’t see, she undid one of the handcuffs, giving his arm freedom of movement, an ache he didn’t even realize was starting to build in his shoulder eased at the new freedom of movement. “There! That’ll make it easier to steady me if you need to, or need take some of the pressure off your neck! Aren’t I so generous?”

Kaito grunted.

“Ugh, ungrateful. You’re so fucking ungrateful!! Alright, tongue out!” Miu demanded, and Kaito closed his eyes when the room darkened as her skirt fell over him, her thighs pressing against the side of his face, a sudden intense _smell_ in front of him being a stronger indication of how close she was getting to him above anything else. He had been impatient for her to start, the sooner she was started, the sooner they could finish this, but now that it was happening…

He wished he could turn his brain off. He wished he could fast forward through this.

He wished he liked her even a little bit.

Just get it done, just get it _done_.

Miu rubbed her ‘lips’ against his, and said angrily as she heard a startled, alarmed sound from him, “Was I being too vague!? Tongue, Kai-Hoe!” before smirking wide as she finally felt him comply, his warm, wet tongue licking upwards and onto her, the placing sloppy, not finding her clit, but that was alright. At least he was finally making a fucking effort!

Her heart pounded in excitement as she felt him start to explore, staying still for a moment to let him get familiar, before shifting her weight, so that the tip of her vagina started to rub against his lips. His tongue lapping into her hole, Miu let out an entirely self-indulgent moan. “Ah…okay…n-not bad…” she sighed happily, rocking her hips against him, feeling the small slits of her clit start to get stimulated, coming to attention as she pressed and rubbed against his skin, before saying, “Okay, just hold your tongue out. Don’t bother licking, just hold it out, nice and flat. Good…good boy! I fucking knew you could learn some tricks, bitch!”

Kaito kept his temper, despite feeling it flare and burn at him, frustrated with her treatment. Whatever. _Whatever._ He was _fine_ with just leaving his tongue where it was because it meant he didn’t have to put any effort into this, could just try to fucking find somewhere else in his head to be as Miu shifted her weight again, and now the head of her lips were pressing down against the center of his tongue (fuck fuck fuck _stop it_ ), Kaito fought down a sudden sense of panic as she started to rock herself onto it, something wet and foreign coating his mouth at her movements.

Above him, Miu was looking more and more ecstatic, her face pinking sweetly as her mouth and eyes leered down at herself, looking down her shirt at her own breasts, finding them in wanting of some handling. She grasped at the straps around her ribs and stomach, and pulled them off, the snaps making little _pop, pop, popping_ sounds as she tossed them aside, before reaching over and doing the same with the one on her arm. Those bindings gone, she took her shirt off from over her head, her goggles knocking off as she did so, and tossed them all aside. She sighed happily, now free of her upper clothing, outside of her bra, which was the same black lace of the panties she had thrown aside earlier.

As she went to fondle herself, she frowned, realizing, “Hey! Ba-Kaito! What, are you just gonna lay there like a corpse?! I gave you your arms back for a reason! Do something with your them already! Grab my ass or something!”

Kaito was having a hard time breathing.

Miu rolled her eyes as she listened to him, gulping and trying to swallow around her as she leaked into his throat, his breaths coming out more strained every minute. He was using his arms, but seemed to be trying to put her off of himself, not throwing her off, but trying to tilt her, to get a breath. Reaching backwards, she grabbed at his wrists, muttering, “I gotta do everything around here.” Before taking his hands and putting them onto her backside, saying sweetly to him, “Be a good dog and keep licking at your treat, okay? Mistress is almoooost ready~!”

And then her sweet tone dropped and she shrilly cackled, endlessly amused by herself as she felt Kaito squeeze at her ass, still trying to tilt her. It hurt a little, his grip, and she suspected it was supposed to, Kaito trying to get in some revenge for being treated so roughly… but Miu didn’t mind. Fuck, she liked it. She wished he’d spank her or something, but Kaito was too much a of a crying little asswipe to do something like that right now, so she just enjoyed the pinching ache of his fingers on her ass, her own hands playfully messing with her nipples, as she went back to focusing on riding his face.

“Hmmm~ oh yeah. Oh yeah, baby, just like that! Oh, momma’s so FUCKING HORNY FOR IT! Come on, _come on!_ Give it to me, shithead, suck my clit!!”

‘ _Please stop talking,_ ’ Kaito thought miserably, as his face was starting to get overheated, and his brain was starting to sputter out. He really, _really_ needed a breath. Like, one honest to god clear breath. He was starting to get dizzy…

“Ooooh, yeah! Oooh yeah! H-uah, ha’ _ee_!! Fuck, _fuck_ , COME ON!” Miu shouted, rocking her hips harder, so close, so close, come on, come on, let it happen, _let it **happen**_ , she _waaanted it!_

Kaito realized might have to straight up shove her off him. He was trying to be patient, he knew if he fucked this up, he’d be back at square one, but he couldn’t _breath_ -

“A-AHhhhh _hhhh-aaaa…”_ The cry started shill, a high, fluty noise, before easing out into a satisfied little huff, Miu catching her breath as her thighs trembled. Looking dazed and sloppily pleased, a line of drool escaping from the corner of her mouth, Miu just huffed and sighed a bit, her clit tingling and spasming in that fun, delightful way, finally properly revved up. Miu squeezed her thighs around Kaito’s head a bit, just letting it rest against him for a moment as she took a second to relax.

“…Mmm!” Kaito grunted below her, something desperate in the sound, and Miu just rolled her eyes as she shifted off of him, moving back onto his chest. She gave him an unimpressed look as he immediately started taking in loud, gasping breaths.

“Oh, shut the fuck up, you’re being so overdramatic. You’re fine! Stop crying about it!”

“I…hauuff… I-I’m not crying…haaaaauuffff… _f_ _uck_ …” Kaito swallowed and felt another wave of repulsion run through him, feeling himself swallow down more of the fluid Miu was coating his mouth with earlier. Looking around warily, he breathed out, “You came. You came… D-does that count? A-are we done?”

“What!? I haven’t even seen your dick yet, you think we’re done!? I’m not some weak-ass one-pump slut! We just got started!” Miu insisted, glaring down at him, reaching out to grab him. But Kaito shook his head, pushing her off of himself as he called out.

“M-monokuma!? I-I know you’re watching, you freak! She came! Does that count!? Can I stop!?”

“What? What? Whose watching what!?” A high pitched, cartoonish voice called out, sounding confused as suddenly the monochrome bear appeared, looking between the two classmates in open confusion as he asked, “What am I supposed to be watching- ** _woah!!_** What did I just walk in on!? My poor, innocent eyes!”

“Shut the fuck up! You wouldn’t be making me do this if you weren’t watching, so don’t play that shit with me!” Kaito shouted, glaring at the bear as the small toy blushed hard and covered its eyes, swaying to and fro in embarrassment. “I was touching her, she came! Does that count as sex!? Is she off my board!?”

“Hey, get o-o-out of here! This isn’t a fucking p-porno, I didn’t sign off on shit, saying a-anyone could watch!!” Miu squealed, her cheeks bright pink as she covered her breasts with her arm, staring in horror at Monokuma.

“I’m not watching! I’m not some pervert!” Monokuma insisted, peeking behind his hands and looking at Miu, who squealed harder, telling him to keep his eyes to himself, you creepy bear! Monokuma chuckled at that, “I have better things to do than watch young humans get freaky with each other. Not my thing! B~uuuut making judgement calls _is_ my thing! So! Interesting question!”

“What _does_ count as sex?” Monokuma wondered, sound genuinely uncertain, “Interesting, interesting… we wouldn’t be the first people to debate something like that. Religions, laws, cultures all over the world, have debated it, the consequences of those debates being serious! Even deadly, for those involved in the act, should their neighbors take large enough offense to it! So it’s a serious question that would require serious thought. Hmmm…”

Kaito and Miu watched, Miu impatient and Kaito tired as Monokuma continued to sway, thinking about it…

“Honestly? Any answer I can give has the danger of being short sighted, what with the different backgrounds, temperaments, and fetish’s of your many classmates. Hmmm… how to rule this…” Monokuma sighed, still rocking back and forth on his toes as Kaito looked at him desperately. Just _barely_ resisting the urge to tell him to _hurry the **fuck up**_ …

“… I think… you’ve technically fulfilled your challenge when the other classmates all _believe_ they’ve had sex with you! Whatever their idea of what having sex means! If they’re convinced you two did the deed!? Then their name gets crossed off the list! There! That should make everyone happy! That was easy! I don’t know why philosophers, laws and religions all fucking struggled with that so much!” Monokuma jeered, letting out a booming laugh.

Kaito grit his teeth, his jaw clicking as he shouted, “Wait, so… wait! I don’t get a say!? I just have to keep going till they think they’re done!?”

“Oh! Well, okay, I guess one person isn’t happy about it.” Monokuma realized, before shrugging. “Oh well! Can’t please everyone! Yep, that’s my ruling. You go till they say you’re done. Then their name gets crossed off the board. That’s my ruling.”

“That’s not fucking FAIR! Hey? Hey!! Fucking, get back here!” Kaito demanded, looking around in a panic as he saw the bear was gone, escaping him as he reached over with vague ideas of _throttling_ the fucking mascot, when his arm suddenly wrenched back, “Hey?!”

“Would you relax?” Miu sighed, taking the handcuffs and connecting them to his other arm again, Kaito losing his balance and falling onto his side with a thump. “I’m doing this for your own good! You’re losing your temper! This isn’t a bad thing, you know!? I’m not **trying** to hurt you! You’d actually have fun with this if you’d relax and let me do this!”

“Just tell them you think we’re done, Miu-”

“Mistress.” Miu corrected him, reaching down to his pants to take off the belt, before frowning as she said, “Didn’t you used to wear sweatpants? What happened to those?”

“Miu, listen to me! Just tell them we’re done! Please?”

Miu frowned, looking disturbed at Kaito as she made a small, displeased sound at him, something dark on her face as she seethed out, “Would you stop talking like I’m fucking _raping you_ or something. I’m doing _you_ a favor, remember!? It’s not my fault this is happening! I’m just trying to have fun with it!”

“Miu-”

“Mistress! And unless you didn’t notice, moron, he didn’t ask me to _say_ anything about it! He said belief! Don’t know how the fuck he could know what’s going through my head, but it’s probably not enough for me to just say that we’re done, I have to _believe_ it. And I don’t! We’ve only just gotten started! Just relax and-”

“I’m not having any fun, _‘mistress’_!”

“Ugh! Fine!” Miu shouted, glaring at him as she tossed his belt aside, “Don’t have any fun then! Make this miserable for yourself! If you’re unhappy, it’s all your own stupid fucking fault! I’m doing the best I can!!”

Kaito felt like arguing some more, but some of what she was saying was bringing back bad memories, of Kaito himself making the same argument to Kokichi. He really _hadn’t_ been trying to hurt him. He really had been trying his best. He had _begged_ Kokichi to play along, to stop fighting him and drawing it out…

On the other side of it (and even thinking of himself in Kokichi’s situation _that_ felt like a… stretch. Miu wasn’t… _no one_ was…) Kaito could understand why none of those platitudes or the reality of the situation had helped Kokichi stop fighting. How knowing any of that didn’t _help_. Kaito felt trapped and disgusted and, weirdly enough, disgust _ing_. He could taste Miu in his mouth and feel her down his throat and he couldn’t get past this idea of how fucking gross he felt. That whoever was watching (Monokuma, Fake-Tsumugi, Other Shuichi) was seeing the thick, mucus like fluid on the edge of his mouth and smeared against his cheek and was just _repulsed_ by him.

Gross… soiled, in some way. Dirty. He felt dirty.

(This felt like his fault.)

And Kaito closed his eyes and swallowed hard again and said, “Okay, fine, I’m sorry. I’ll play along, okay? I’m sorry, you’re right, I-I’ll relax, okay!?”

Miu had just grabbed the hems of his pants, raising an eyebrow over those large, light blue orbs of hers, something skeptical in her gaze…before shrugging. “Good. Glad you’re finally with the program! It’ll feel good, I promise. I haven’t hurt you yet, have I?”

‘ _You fucking slapped me._ ’ Kaito thought, but he kept it to himself. Relax. He was going to relax. He was only making this worse. This wasn’t either of their faults. Just…just relax.

His whole body tensed up as she pulled at his pants, and he felt both them and his underwear drag down past his knees, and off his legs entirely.

Miu’s eyes widened, her breath stuttering as she stared for a moment…before saying, voice absolutely _delighted_ , “Holy SHIT, that’s you _limp_!? Fuck, it’s true! The stupid ones always have the big dicks!”

Kaito’s face burned at that. Did he? Sure, he had been big compared to Kokichi, but…

But the delight turned to annoyance as Miu said, “Wait, why are you limp? Seriously, none of that did _anything_ for ya?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say!” Kaito said up to her, feeling his temper flash again, though he took some deep breaths and reminded himself he was trying to enjoy this. “I haven’t been having fun yet, Miu! Mistress! Whatever!”

“Hmmm.” Miu seemed to actually be taking his complaint more seriously now, seeing the physical side of it as she reached over to poke Kaito’s dick hanging limply against his thigh, Kaito giving her an exasperated look. “Alright. We can fix this. I don’t suppose you’re up to taking drugs?”

“What? No!”

“Fiiiiine. Fucking baby.” Miu scoffed, heading to her chest and looking through it, before pulling out what looked like a thick glove with wires curling around it, Kaito looking at it incredulously as she exclaimed, “This should do it! A fabulous invention by the Ultimate University Level Inventor!”

“What’s that?” Kaito asked warily, watching her fasten it onto her right hand, some buttons on the back of it lighting up as she secured it.

“What’d I just say? One of my inventions! Trust me, after a ride with this thing, you’ll never be satisfied jerking off with your hand again!” Miu cackled, returning to him and throwing her legs around him, sitting on his knees, she said, “And it’ll get you hard as a rock in a second! I told you I was gonna show you a good time, this is gonna be a good time! Just stop fucking whining about everything and I’ll take care of it!”

“…kay.” Kaito said, only squirming lightly on the ground as the glove started to make a humming sound, Miu letting it warm up before she touched him again. Another fucking thing she was putting onto him. Kaito had basically forgotten about the collar around his throat, but man, he wished she hadn’t put the handcuffs back o- “ _Ah! H-aah!_ ”

“There we go~” Miu practically purred, watching with that open, lewd expression as Kaito started to squirm, his body flushing red from his face down to his chest as Miu took his dick into her gloved hand, rubbing the fingers and palm lightly over his skin. She didn’t press or massage: she didn’t have too, with the way the glove worked, do much more than lightly touch him, as small currents of electricity warmly buzzed through him. His legs jerking and shaking under the pressure of the current, his dick quickly starting to harden in her grasp. “See? That feels good, doesn’t it?”

“Y-yeah…”

“Yes, _mistress_.”

“Yeah, yes, okay, yes mistress.” Kaito gasped, still feeling weird calling her that, b-but fuck, this felt better, this felt _good_. He didn’t want it to stop feeling good, didn’t want to go back to that soiled, disgusted feeling, so he swallowed hard (the taste of her not…as awful now, now that he felt a little better) and said, “I…fuck, okay, I like that…no, no, hey! Wait, why-!?”

Kaito looked at her, not feeling like she had had the glove on him for more than a few seconds when she took it away, his dick high and raised towards her, twitching as it waited to be pushed towards relief. Why had she stopped? It had just finally started to feel good!

Miu snickered though, using her other hands to feel up and down his dick, looking at the happy trail of course, purple hair that led from his belly button to his dick as she said, “Begging doesn’t work on me, ya know. Just turns me on, if nothing else! And, ya know, you should shave and style this thing. If you’re going to be the new school bicycle, you might as well prep for the part!”

Bicycle? What did it mean to be a bicycl-

Once again, Kaito found his thoughts interrupted, as Miu leaned down and, with no warning whatsoever, put her mouth around his dick, Kaito’s eyes practically popping out of his skull as he watched her do this. He wasn’t so sure why he was shocked, but he was. For some reason he just hadn’t thought she’d do anything like that, if only because he didn’t see what she’d possibly get out of it. But, her expression…

Miu was absolutely enjoying herself, running her lips up and down the tight pull of his now throbbing cock, her tongue slick and warm against him as she pushed and squeezed around him, humming to herself as he felt the tip of his dick swallow into the back of her throat. Once there, he gasped for breath as she swallowed over and over, Miu looking up at him with a smug, pleased expression as he called her name, once again forgetting her title, but lost in the pleasure as he whimpered out, “Miu… _please_ … _ah, mmmm… r- **nnnn** ghhh_” the sound low and guttural, from the very most back part of his throat, his chest stilling as his whole body tensed up.

Miu closed her eyes for a moment, relaxing her throat as she felt him begin to spill into her, then swallowing down a few times until the muscle down her throat stopped twitching. Removing her mouth from his dick with a small _slurp_ and then a **pop** , her lips flicking at his head, she laughed, wiping her mouth as she said, “Oh, we got a growler here, boys! Cute. I like a man with a little feral in him! Anyway, I’d say now we’re even when it comes to oral, huh? Don’t say I never did anything for ya!”

As Kaito caught his breath, feeling dazed and, yeah, a little euphoric, his body high on the sudden rough of endorphins, he still couldn’t help but think airily to himself, ‘ _Okay… we both came… now are we done?_ ’

But his throat bobbed as Miu touched him with the gloved hand again, his whole body shuddering as he felt that current run through him again, though this time it was way more intense, the noise rushing out of him an alarmed whine as he said, “Miu, mistress? Too much, that’s too much! A-ah, AH, please!? Please, please-”

“Relax, relaaax. Give it a second, the stinging will stop! Just breath, you whiney bitch! Momma’s _got you_.” Miu coo’d, each word a back and forth between genuinely placating and absolute sadism.

Kaito tried, he really did, but his cock was still incredibly sensitive from cumming just a moment ago, and his whining was starting to turn into frustrated, angry growls as he said, “ **Miu** _. Stop!_ ”

But she was relentless, and this time she left the glove on much too long, and Kaito started fighting against his handcuffs, his stomach clenching as painful shocks of pleasure raced through it, and the longer she kept at it, the more his body started to shake, the room starting to feel like the air was broiling. “ _Miu!_ ”

“ _Kaito!_ ” Miu mocked, “Whine, whine, whine! You really are such a bitch, Kaito! Everything about you reminds me of a dog! Your dumb attitude, your temper, and now you even fuck like a dog! Whimpering and whining! Ya know what…I got one more thing for you.” Miu hummed happily, finally releasing Kaito’s dick, getting up and heading over to the chest as Kaito huffed, desperately trying to catch his breath, his eyes reddening as they burned ever so slightly, tears threatening him as his body struggled to keep up with what was happening to it.

“Y-you promised…” Kaito warbled, feeling a little dizzy, not entirely certain himself what he was talking about. She hadn’t promised anything, but still, he had thought they had come to an understanding that he didn’t… he didn’t _like_ things being put on him and…

He watched her pull a leash out of the chest, blinking in confusion at it. He understood what it was, and what she was going to do with it, but he was confused in how he felt about it. He probably shouldn’t like it, but he found himself weirdly relieved it wasn’t, for whatever reason, the bit again, or a blindfold. In comparison, a leash seemed barely worth worrying over.

So he was _fine, **fine**_ , when she came over and clicked it on him.

He was **_fine._**

****

She didn’t even pull it. She just clicked it on and held it, and maybe that was all she was going to do with it, and he didn’t care, he didn’t care, he- fuck, fuck, fuck the glove was back, “M _iu!_ ” Kaito squirmed, his body shaking, close again, fuck, he was close again, oh, _oh_ , he _wanted it_ \- “AH! NNNR **GHH- _FUCKING GOD DAMN IT, MIU!”_**

“What!?” Miu cackled, knowing exactly what she was doing, as Kaito shook, bucking his hips, trying to get her off of him as he spilled against her hand and his stomach, the inventor not letting up for a second as Kaito’s eyes bugged out for a second, before closing them, unable to get a breath out as he tensed through his second orgasm. Why couldn’t he breath!? Why was it so hard to breath!?!

Breath! Fuck, fuck, just breath!

By this point, it was forty minutes hour later, and Kaito was covered in a layer of sweat, staring up at Miu with wild, desperate eyes as she milked him through his second orgasm, drool pooling in his mouth as he struggled to swallow, his heart POUNDING in his chest as he gasped, urgently, “AH! AH! M-Miu, PLEASE!”, fighting his bonds as shocks of painful pleasure shot through his stomach and into his chest.

It was too much! He couldn’t handle much more than this. He could barely catch a breath!

“I told you already, begging doesn’t work on me!” She cackled, pulling on the leash of his collar, forcing him to sit up, his arms going numb from laying on top of them, Kaito closing his eyes as he realized she was going in for another kiss, her tongue pushing into his mouth as his whole body trembled and spasmed, his hips jerking, trying to move away from her touch, as his cock throbbed and spiked painfully at her attention. “And I ain’t letting your shit-dick touch me until you’re three deep in and I’m riding through wave number two!”

“H-RrNNNNGG, HAh! I can’t, I can’t, oh my god, M—miu, please!”

“Oh yes you can! You’re about to learn that body is good for ALL SORTS OF THING!” She laughed, smiling widely down at him as she said, “Now, let’s turn you around! I’ve got a brand new gift from Shuichi yesterday that I wanna try on you~”

As, with a shocking amount of strength, she turned him over, Kaito stared into the floor, actually finding it difficult to keep his knees in place just from how slick and wet everything was, Kaito wondering what Shuichi could have possibly given her that she would want to use on-AHH!

FUCK!!

“Stop, stop, _FUCK_ , you _promised_!” Kaito shouted, not wanting the leash, not having even _kind of_ agreed to a fucking **_dildo_** , just stop! Stop! Stop!

For a second there it had all been okay.

Like she had said it would be…

And now it was all too fucking much again! “You promised! You promised! STOP!”

“Promised what!? Chill out! You were into it a second ago!” Miu said, taking the, as far as she was concerned, small dildo she had chosen to take it easy on him between her fingers and gently (again, in her own mind) moving it in and out of him. Kaito had never had anything inside of him like that before, and he whimpered for a moment (out **out** he wanted it _out!)_ , and then furiously pulled at his handcuffs again. He didn’t want this, he didn’t want this, he-

(”Just let us die!”)

“M’sorry, m’sorry, m’sorry.” Kaito whispered, closing his eyes.

“Sorry about what? Whining so much!? Awww, that’s alright! I didn’t expect much from our resident ‘Friendship is Magic’ dipshit.” Miu cackled, reaching over to rub his back soothingly, Kaito shivering under her touch as she said, “Heeee~y now, it’s okay, it’s okay. This hasn’t been all bad, has it? You’ve cum twice now! That’s gotta feel pretty good, right!?”

Kaito didn’t answer. Just focused on catching his breath and lowering his heartrate, which was fucking _racing_ in his ears now that she had stopped for a moment. She didn’t even sound _winded_. Well, of course she didn’t, she came ages ago, and had spent most of this time fucking around with him. If she had been, like…even kind of likable? Maybe he could interpret her actions as her ‘taking care of’ him, but…fuck, he had wanted to finish this ages ago. Had _begged her_ numerous times now to finish this. And she wouldn’t stop _fucking with him!_

He had to take some control back here. He couldn’t keep doing this. His body was rapidly becoming exhausted, his head hurt, and he was losing so much water from sweat that it was literally starting to pool on the floor around him. This was fucking _torture_ , and she seemed perfectly content to let it just go on forever. She said she wasn’t going to even consider letting him touch her until he was three in!? How many fucking times did she expect him to cum!?

Okay, okay, okay-

Leaning forward, putting his forehead against the flooring, shuddering as he felt her shift that fucking _thing_ inside him again, clearly trying to find some spot inside of him that would make the intrusion feel good (and, yes, every now and again she brushed against…something. That felt…okay. But he was in no fucking mood to appreciate it) he collected himself and grunted out- “ _Mistress_ … ’wanna _fuck you_ …”

Miu glanced up from her work in his ass, her eyes alighting with interest, a blush pinking her features as she said, “Oh?”

That small hint of interest was his sign that he was on the right track, Kaito summoning his energy and, lifting himself back up onto his knees, (fuck, fuck, get that THING OUT OF HIM) and twisting around, looking back at her over his shoulder, his chest rising and lowering as he stared at her intently, “Y-yeah. _Yeah_. **Miu**. I wanna… fucking _pound you_ into the god damn **ground**.”

“W-wow! Really? W-where did _that_ come from?” Miu snickered, though she looked absolutely thrilled with this turn in events, pulling at her end of his leash. Kaito grunted as he was forced to spin on his knees, now facing her, still bound and sweating and at her mercy, but his expression _fierce_ as he looked at her. **_Feral_**.

A nervous, excited giggle erupted out of Miu at that expression, and she said, “Ha-ha-ha! You think you can _handle me_?! I’m a whole lotta woman, _bitch!_ You gotta have more than tough words to satisfy _me!_ ”

“Fucking uncuff me and I’ll show you.” Kaito growled, muscles tensing as once again he began to pull them on either side, trying to snap the metal.

“O-oooooh… s-scary.” Miu purred, leering down at him, before laughing, shaking her head as she stood up, Kaito looking up warily at her from his kneeling position, wincing as she tugged at the leash, leading him somewhere, “I don’t fucking think so, space-case! You think I went to all this trouble tying you up to let you pretend you got a dominant bone in your fucking body!? B~ _uuuut_ I’ll let you take out some of that aggression, bitch! Here!”

They had gotten to a pipe that went from one of the machines to the roof, and Kaito watched, confused, as Miu threw the leash over the bend of the pipe, before catching the falling end of it on the other side. Kaito’s knees were bruised and ached from keeping up with her walk, but he was immediately distracted from that pain when the collar on his neck suddenly jerked violently backwards when Miu, with no warning, fell backwards, keeping the leash in hand as she laid on her back and spread her legs.

Kaito winced, body trembling from a mixture of exhaustion, rage, and, yeah, arousal, when Miu shuffled herself beneath him, his body held taught and back straight from the pressure of the leash against the pipe as Miu spread her legs. Her skirt falling up her thigh and around her waist, Miu exposed herself to him as she said, “Well? Go ahead, horn-dog! I’m right here, waiting for you! You said you wanted to pound me into the floor, right!?”

Despite having been literally nose deep into it before, this was Kaito’s first chance to really see Miu’s underside, her lips wet and smeared, her clit still hidden away by the folds of those lips, hole gaping for him. The sight of it did…not make him feel any better about having shoved his tongue in there, and now between her body and Kokichi’s, Kaito wondered if it was always going to be a battle to make himself attracted to people, or if it was just the scenarios like this that made her look so repulsive to him.

Still, Kaito had managed to arouse himself with Kokichi’s thin, bony body and crying, furious expression. He had managed to get it done with death literally hanging above their heads. He could manage with Miu’s grabbing, ugly folds and her mean, degrading eyes.

He just…had to find something attractive in this…

(…fuck… after all this…)

(Wouldn’t it feel nice to feel in control for five _fucking seconds?_ )

Kaito snarled, teeth grinding together, and he suddenly lunged forward, trying to dislodge the leash from her grip.

He was unsuccessful, and the collar pulled tightly at his neck again, keeping him from quite getting to her, but Miu squealed in fear for a moment, and Kaito thought, ‘ _Yeah. That. I can work with **that.**_ ’ And he sneered at her, letting all of his hatred and fury into his eyes as she looked up at him, suddenly trembling as he bore down on her. “W-what are you-!? AH! AH-HAUH~ !!”

Kaito pushed himself inside of her and immediately started moving his hips. It was his first time feeling the press of a woman around him, and Kaito wished he was able to enjoy this more. He wished he was doing this with someone that he could be slow and gentle with and she’d be kind and patient and the two would laugh over him oo’ing and ahh’ing over her, just so thrilled to touch her and…

_God fucking dammit, he wished this had all been different_.

And now, all he really wanted to do was hurt her a little. Scare her, maybe. No, no, more than that, he just wanted to finish this. This had taken too long already. He was tired and he wanted to stop. And that meant he had to put in, just, a _bit more effort_ … and if it scared her at the same time, than great!

Fuck her!

And, as he leaned into her hips, using her thighs to balance himself, fighting both the cuffs behind him and the leash at his neck, slamming his hips into hers… he felt her wrap her legs around him, saw the overwhelmed, _ecstatic_ look on her face, and just…

…resigned himself to the fact that he had played right into her hands.

“ _UuugHH-AAAA, FUCK, FUCK, OH **FUCK ME, FUCK ME DADDY!** ”_

‘ _Could you not?_ ’ Kaito thought, trying to ignore her as he grunted and thrusted into her , feeling himself getting close, but kept getting distracted by the stupid shit she kept saying, as she screamed, “OH YEAH, SLAP MY PUSSY WITH TH-THAT DIRY DICK! FUCK YEAH, OH _FUCK, YOU **BAD BOY!!** ”_

‘ _So, am I daddy or a bad boy?_ ’ Kaito mocked her, just deciding to close his eyes, his breathing struggling as she kept pulling at the leash, choking him, and fuck, fuck, he really actually was struggling to breath like this, as he stilled for a moment and rasped out “M-Miu, ease u- _hauugh!_ ”

Kaito made an ugly, strangled sound as Miu suddenly yanked the leash harder for a moment, Kaito’s back as straight as he could make it as he struggled to breathe through his strangling, before finally being allowed to slump forward, Miu loosening her grip enough that he was hunched over when she used her other hand to-

**SLAP!**

“HOW FUCKING _DARE_ YOU STOP! I WAS ALMOST THERE! KEEP GOING YOU _DUMB MUTT-BRED BITCH!!!_ ”

Kaito stared dumbly at the floor, honestly…a little shocked she had done that. His heart thumping his chest, overwhelmed and furious and…

…still rasping for a breath…

…a little scared…

And reminding himself he just wanted to be done, he _just wanted to be done_ , Kaito looked back down at her, but this time just… stared vacantly somewhere around her chest area, returning to thrusting his hips into her as hard and fast as he could, ignoring her screams and cries and gross, weird words that made him want to escape her as he kept reminding himself _‘Just keep going, keep going, you’ll be done soon ,she just said it, she’s almost done,_ ** _you’re almost done_**.’

“Hauugh! A-HA- _HUA! OH YES, OH~YES, JUST LIKE THAT, JUST LIKE THAT YOU STUPID FUCKTARD, YOU DUMB BITCH, FUCK ME, FUCK MMMM- **MMMMMM!!! AUUGH, YES!! YES!!!!**_ ”

Kaito closed his eyes and grit his teeth as the collar pulled against his throat again, Miu writhing as she squeezed her legs around him. Her body was shaking as she rode through her orgasm, gasping and stuttering out for a moment… before she finally collapsed. Her legs falling and letting go of the leash, Kaito knocked to his side and unable to catch himself as he grunted, falling out of her.

He was still hard, but that didn’t even kind of matter to him, as he struggled to catch his breath again, just _so_ relieved she had stopped. Miu was humming happily to herself as she rode through her euphoria. Kaito’s body felt stiff and tense, worn out and still _aching_ as he was left unfinished, but the _last_ fucking thing he wanted to do was let her touch him again, enough, he had had _enough…_

Done?

Were they done…?

After a while of them both laying there, Miu suddenly laughed to herself, sitting up. Kaito’s whole body flinched as she reached over to put her hands through his hair, the purple-haired man wondering with some anxiety if she was trying to start again. But Miu just ran her fingers across his scalp as she said, “Well, that was pretty good, huh? Didn’t I tell you I’d take care of you!? And you doubted me!”

Kaito swallowed hard and adjusted his legs, trying to hide his erection. Just stop, just say they were done, leave him alone… his voice was raspy and stung, the skin around his neck absolutely raw from the collar pulling against it as he managed to force out, “Y-yeah…th-that was great…”

“Right!? Ha-ha-ha! Brains, beauty, and _that_ fucking good in bed!? I’m the whole fucking package, baby! Ahhhhh…that was fun. We should do that again sometime.” Miu hummed happily, entirely pleased with herself. Entirely sincere in every word.

Kaito felt bile in his throat, but didn’t say anything. Not even asking to get the cuffs taken off, remembering how she had said begging riled her up. Not wanting to make a mistake and get her going again. He was making the bet that just waiting for her to get bored with this was the safest possible option. Just get bored and let this be done…

“…alright, well. Let’s get my stuff back and get you the fuck out of here. I don’t fucking bother with aftercare, so sorry buddy, but we’re done today. Try not to fucking cry about it, you pussy!”

And Miu cackled at her own words—she clearly considered herself witty, rather than cruel-- and Kaito felt his hatred grow as she shoved her hands in between his asscheeks, pulling out without ceremony the dildo she had shoved inside him in the first place. For a moment, he had actually forgotten it was there, though its removal was actually more painful than it’s intrusion. Something inside of him _stung_. Badly. He felt his backside ache as it tried to return to its original shape before the intrusion, and Kaito tried to ignore the fury and fear that ran though him at that. Tried not to think about how fucking needlessly shitty that had all been.

Tried not to think about very much at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Miu and Kaito get it on, and it's mostly a shitty time for Kaito, being put into collars and handcuffs and leashes, and almost every time he tries to set a boundary, she threatens to kick him out of the lab. At one point Miu tries to insist Kaito call her 'mistress', which he does irregularly and with some resentment, which is only mentioned as that might be referenced later in the story.
> 
> At one point in the story, Monokuma shows up at Kaito's request, to verify what counts as 'having sex with' someone in terms of the board and the challenge. Monokuma decides to make it the challenge is complete when Kaito's partner believes they've successfully had sex with him, regardless of what actually physically takes place.


	7. It's Not Like Kokichi Has A Lot Of Options Either

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a friend warn me the last chapter was too dark to leave as the last thing to read while the fic was still on hiatus, so here you are, readers! A little bit of plot to cleanse the pallet.

Kaito tried to sleep.

He really tried.

The room felt cold and cavernous, every time he closed his eyes. It wasn’t. He should be… warm, under the covers of the blankets. Comfortable. Soft. He pulled the pillow under his head and curled into the blankets and told himself he was warm and comfortable and safe, and he tried to sleep.

He almost felt himself drift off for a second, and when he opened his eyes and saw nothing but darkness he started to gag and he got up and went to turn on the light and curled into the wall and reminded himself that breathing was a really great thing and he should _do that more_.

…he needed to sleep. He was so tired. His neck hurt. He didn’t do everything he just did with Miu to _not sleep_. Go back to bed. He’d leave the light on. Just till he felt better. But he needed to sleep. Go back to bed.

…he couldn’t.

The nerves in his stomach twisted like bile, and he thought maybe he should go sit by the toilet. He might actually vomit. He swallowed hard. Just breathe. You need to sleep. Get up off the wall, go back to bed, curl yourself into the blankets and-

She was in him.

She was in his throat and stomach.

This got him up, and he ran to the bathroom, just making it to the toilet in time.

The room was too quiet. It was too big when he closed his eyes and too small when he opened them. The light helped, but not much. He couldn’t stay in here. He couldn’t stay.

The next second, Kaito’s slippers and clothes were back on, and he was dragging his pillow and blanket out with him, breathing heavily as he escaped his room, his whole body shivering. He stepped into the dorm hall, and closed his door behind him, and leaned against his door and sat down and held his pillow and blanket against himself and _breathe. **Breathe.**_

…what was he doing…

…he couldn’t stay out here.

His friends would see him out here. He’d worry them. He was Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars. He wasn’t the kind of person who couldn’t stay in his bedroom and, and, and c-couldn’t breathe and needed to make a big spectacle of himself in public. He wasn’t the kind of person who worried people!

He… he had told everyone that he was handling this. That he was fine. He didn’t want to… pressure anyone…

If he slept out here, he’d worry everyone.

Go back inside.

Go back to bed.

…the dorm hall was bigger and brighter. He could hear the sounds of his friends in their rooms, if he held still enough and listened. Footsteps. Doors opening and closing. Plumbing pipes rushing through the walls. Comforting. The comforting sounds of other people.

He should go back inside…

…he couldn’t.

Just tonight. Just one night. He’d sleep out here. He knew he’s worry them, but if they asked him what he was doing, he’d just admit he found it more comfortable. It was fine. He’d reassure them. It was fine.

As he put his blanket around his shoulders, the pillow under his head, the door to his room pressed against his back, Kaito watched the eyes of the drawings on the door. Listened to the sounds. He still felt guilty, but at least the fear was gone… he felt better. He could close his eyes…

He kept them closed, feeling his body start to relax. Sleep. He’d get some sleep. He’d feel better after some sleep. His neck hurt… but he’d feel better after some sleep. He would. He would.

Kaito tensed. He heard a door open, the front door that led out to the yard. He listened to footsteps, clacking through the hall, coming up to him. He waited. He wasn’t sure who it was, but he waited to be asked what he was doing. Tried to think what he’d say to reassure them. He was fine. They didn’t need to worry. There was nothing wrong.

…

… Kaito’s stomach twisted with hurt as the footsteps moved on. Whoever it was going into their room, the door closing behind them.

…they… probably just didn’t want to wake him up.

…Yeah…

-

“…hey?”

Hmgh.

“Hey! Hey, Kaito! Hey!”

Kokichi poked at Kaito’s face, poking at his cheekbone. He had woken up much earlier than everyone else, and the sun wasn’t quite up yet. He had meant to head to the dining hall and make himself a sandwich and had gotten a little distracted by the six-foot purple guy drooling in the entrance hall. Seemed unusual. He went to check it out.

He had spent some time observing Kaito before waking him up.

The mark around his neck was worse. The parts that weren’t rubbed red were turning purple. He had a bruise on the right of his face. He had bags under his eyes. Carefully, he pulled up the sleeve of Kaito’s jacket. Purple, bruising rings around his wrists as well. Hm.

Yeah. Kokichi could count ‘bindings’ as confirmed. But the hits against his face? Did he get that while he was ‘away’ or…

Kokichi looked above Kaito’s body, at his door, where the list was still hanging up.

Miu’s name was crossed out in one big, bold black stroke.

Hm.

“Kaito~oooo. Wake up sleepy head! I need your muscles!”

Kaito’s warm, magenta eyes peeked open, clearly not awake yet, but he grunted in annoyance as Kokichi poked at his face again, reaching up to knock Kokichi’s hand away before closing his eyes, trying to go back to sleep. Kokichi scoffed. “Up—up-up! Kaito! Get up already, we only have until tonight before you go away again!”

“What? What?” That seemed to wake Kaito up, his eyes focusing as he scooted up onto his elbows, looking around in confusion before saying, “…why am I-”

“Don’t know! You’re really weird, Kaito!” Kokichi laughed, reaching for Kaito’s blanket and pulling it off of him, Kaito groaning at the cold of the floor hit him. “Come on! We don’t have a lot of time! I need your help!”

Kaito looked suspiciously at Kokichi, sitting up and leaning against his door, the bags under his eyes starting to bruise blue. Kokichi guessed Kaito’s frustrated look might partly be him trying to see through his bleary eyes. He looked like he needed more sleep, and Kokichi wasn’t surprised when Kaito grumbled, “What time is it? Leave me alone.”

“Nope. Nah uh. I need your help.” Kokichi said again, grasping onto Kaito’s sleeve, trying to pull him up onto his feet. “Come on! Up! Let’s go! Time to put in the work!”

Kaito, who didn’t so much as budge at Kokichi’s pull, looked exasperatedly at him, “…help with what?”

“With breaking the game!” Kokichi beamed.

-

“…Kokichi.” Kaito sighed, as they dragged the chairs from the dining hall out to the courtyard, heading for the Monokuma statue, “…this is a really shitty prank.”

“Not a prank!” Kokichi said brightly, holding one chair over his shoulder and dragging another along behind him. “Of course, that could be a lie!”

“Why are we…” Kaito sighed again, sounding exasperated to hear himself say it aloud, “…trying to stuff a bunch of items into the elevator down to the trial room?”

“To pressure a loading point of the map until the graphics around it starts glitching, perhaps cluing us in on ways to manipulate the environment of this program from within!!” Kokichi explained cheerfully, heading to the elevator in the fountain and throwing his chairs on top of the ever-increasing pile.

Kaito blinked tiredly, also putting his three chairs on, before following Kokichi out. “…what?”

“Because it’ll piss of Monokuma and he’ll come chat to us!” Kokichi lied.

“Oh.” Kaito grumbled, heading back inside the school, heading to the cafeteria and dining hall, which was the room they were currently pillaging. “…I just call him. He’ll just show up, ya know.”

“Trust me, Kaito, there’s a greater plan in play! Now go grab all the silverware! All those little pieces have to help too!” Kokichi theorized, heading to go grab the pots and pans himself, before realizing, “There’s potato bags in the pantry! Let’s empty the potatoes out in the elevator and then use the bags to move stuff in bulk!”

“No plan with Kokichi Oma that’s based on the words ‘trust me’ is going to work out well for me.” Kaito murmured to himself, going to grab some potato bags from the pantry, “Kirumi’s going to kill us.”

“She’s cleaning the basement area this morning! And so long as you’re here, everyone else will avoid the area. So long as we’re quick, we can get this done!” Kokichi said, hefting one of the potato bags over his shoulder, “Come on, Kaito, take more than that! What are all those shoulders and muscle good for if you can only hold two potato bags at once!?”

“I’m tired.” Kaito grumbled, but he went to grab more potato bags, following Kokichi out of the kitchen. “…is everyone really avoiding me that hard?”

“Nah! I’m sure it’s a coincidence everyone’s staying in their dorm rooms and their talent rooms the day they know you’re still here.” Kokichi snickered, before looking over his shoulder as he said, “So! Spill the tea! How was she!? As gross as I imagined??”

“… I’m not talking to you about that.” Kaito said, gritting his teeth. “That’s none of your business.”

“Did she sit on your face?” Kokichi asked, looking over his shoulder at Kaito, watching the astronauts face grimace. “Ha ha ha!! EW! I was kidding, did she _actually!?_ Eeeeewwww, how many STD’s do you think you have now!? Gross!”

“Shut the fuck up, Kokichi! It’s not your business!!”

“Sure, sure, it’s totally not my business.” Kokichi snickered, heading to the elevator and dumping the potatoes onto the pile of random objects. He looked around. Nothing different yet… he really had no idea what to expect, or even if he should expect anything at all. This was a test, he had no idea if anything would come of it. “I _totally_ don’t have any reason to worry about the fact that you’ve started trying to knock out your rape list.”

Kaito dumped his own piles of potatoes, his eyes widening in alarm for a second, horrified…before he grit his teeth. “I…stop screwing around! Don’t fucking call it that!”

“Oh?” Kokichi said, the two walking back together. A round, blank smile on his face. “So, you wanted to do it, then?”

“What? No, I… fuck, look, that’s not…I don’t have to do this, you know! I could just go back to sleep!” Kaito threatened, the veins around his eyes pulsing in agitation.

“But then I may never decide to fuck you, Kai-chan.” Kokichi pointed out.

Kaito winced at that, not looking at Kokichi as he muttered, “…that’s not why I’m here. I already know you’re not going too.”

“Oh? Really? Not hoping that if you get into my good graces, doing an apparently pointless task with your extremely limited free time, that maybe one day I’ll be happy with you enough to let you get your gross, stupid body on top of me again?” Kokichi asked, looking up at him sweetly.

“…” Kaito’s fists tightened at his side. “ _No_. That’s… you said you needed my help. You said you thought this would end the game. That’s why I’m-”

Kokichi, in turn, took a few quick steps ahead of them, and then spun in place, still smiling sweetly at Kaito as he said, “Ooooh? So you don’t want to jump my bones, Kai-chan? W-why not!? What, that gross pig Miu is good enough to fuck, but not me!?? Wow, way to make me feel unwanted! You’re so mean!!”

Now Kaito looked completely taken off guard, looking at Kokichi in bewilderment as he stammered out, “U-uh, no, I mean…what!?”

“W-AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“Stop! Stop doing that! Shut up! I don’t want to talk about this! I’m leaving if this is what we talk about!”

Kokichi stopped crying, before sighing. “Man, you’re so _boring_ Kaito… alright, fine. What do you want to talk about?”

Kaito looked around nervously. They were alone in their journey back to the kitchen, but he still said quietly. “…I want to talk about Fake-Tsumugi.”

This, at least, seemed to give the Supreme Leader pause. Kokichi gave Kaito a curious look, raising a thin eyebrow as he said, “Oh? What about her? Do we have any new information, perrrrhaps? Spill, Katio! Give me all the dirty-deets!”

“Shhh, would you? I don’t want anyone too…”

“Hear us?” Kokichi said simply, before rolling his eyes, “Don’t worry yourself. I’m pretty sure there’s nothing we can do about that. This world doesn’t offer us a lot of advantages, and privacy definitely isn’t one of them.”

“…I don’t know what you mean when you say things like that. What do you mean, this world?”

“I can’t explain it to you, because you’re an idiot and wouldn’t understand, even if I explained and explained and explained all day.”

“I’m not an idiot! …But you’re a pest, is what you are.” Kaito grumbled, the two heading into the kitchen, piling random small items into their potato sack bags.

“Rude. You’re so mean to me! After all I do for you! I’m here doing my very best to be nice to the town slut, and-”

“ _Don_ _’t._ ** _Don_** ** _’t_** _call me that._ ”

“Oof. Touchy.” Kokichi muttered, before snickering, giving Kaito a sneer as they headed back out the building with their new loot, into the sun. “Fine. I won’t. And _you_ don’t rape me when you start getting desperate. Deal?”

“I’m…I’m not going to do that again, Kokichi.” Kaito said quietly, his eyes downcast to the dirt now, bags of dishware jostling over his shoulders.

“Not even if your life is threatened?” Kokichi said, and because he knew Kaito bought into the whole martyr-hero schtick, he added on with an eyeroll, “Or mine?”

There was no answer to this. Kaito just looking tired. Kokichi let a minute pass before tsking between his teeth. “Ugh. Gross. You could at least lie to me, Kaito.”

“Not everything’s better with lies.” Kaito said quietly, though there wasn’t much passion in the statement. He just looked tired.

“Yeah, totally. You telling me you’d rape me is _soooo_ much better than just lying to me to ease my fears for a while. Great job, Kaito, you did it hero.”

Kaito frowned at that, before saying, “…don’t call me that either.”

“Hmmm? What? Hero?” Kokichi asked, genuinely curious. “I thought you loved that shit.”

“I don’t know…she called me that. It made me uncomfortable.” Kaito admitted as they got back to the elevator, putting more random shit on the pile, though Kaito was careful not to break any glass. Once the sacks were empty he shoved his hands into his pockets, really just trying to be warmer. He was always so fucking cold these days… “Fake-Tsumugi scares me.”

He didn’t know why he told Kokichi that.

He had just wanted to tell someone.

Kokichi just snorted at the impromptu confession, as he said, “Well, ‘Fake-Tsumugi’ _should_ scare you. She’s a very bad person who has a lot of power over us, right now… by the way~ Kai-chan! I was wondering! Does she have any friends?” Kokichi asked, again bouncing ahead of Kaito on the path back to the kitchen— still no sign of anything changing— walking backwards as he turned to face the astronaut, smile again all sweetness as he asked, “Any other ‘fake’ people she’s been paling around with, that Kaito’s met? Maybe a certain emo with pretty eyes wearing their depression in their hat?”

Kaito stiffened at that, staring at the ground. “…how did you know?”

“You need to stop wearing your expressions on your face, Kaito, it makes you super ugly and unlikable.” Kokichi explained, tilting his head curiously. “So? Yes?”

“…yeah.” He admitted, looking around guiltily. Afraid he was betraying his friend by saying this. “…there’s a Fake-Shuichi. He…he visits me more than Fake-Tsumugi does, I think…”

Hmmm. Interesting. Kokichi had guessed Kaito was getting more tense around Shuichi, but not that Shuichi (Kokichi hadn’t ruled out that it wasn’t possibly just plain ol’ regular Shuichi…though it didn’t make him happy to think it) was even more active then Fake-Tsumugi. Considering this for a moment, Kokichi spun around, walking forward again as he whined, “No one ever visits _me,_ you know. I have to assume that Fake-Tsumugi’s been so obsessed with you and this challenge that she’s forgotten all about me. Is it because you’re tall? I can’t help that I’m short, dammit! Where’s my weird cryptid visits and shitty rape challenges!?”

“I said don’t call it that! And be thankful they don’t visit… it’s not fun.” Kaito muttered, before his brow furrowed in confusion. “But…I’m gone all the time, and usually I’m alone. They don’t bother you at all during that time?”

Kokichi thought about explaining that most of the time, while Kaito was gone, life suddenly _sped the **fuck up**_. It was incredibly disorientating, and it was only because it was happening so damn often that Kokichi was starting to get his bearings on it. Starting to get used to it. It still sucked, and it was really hard to think while it was happening, but, well, Kokichi was managing.

The real problem was- “Nope. They leave me all by my lonesome. Which, great, hurray, I’m not being fucked with! Or fucked! Fantastic! But also…” Kokichi scowled, “I’ve completely hit a blank wall, in terms of solving this situation. I mean, I’m so out of ideas that we’re literally stuffing an elevator with garbage, because that’s how out of ideas I am. I have no new clues, nowhere else to check, and everyone I talk to about this _literally_ can’t understand me or contribute to the conversation… well, any more than this ragtag group of idiots already couldn’t contribute before.”

“…is this really meant to help? You’re not just messing with me? You’re actually trying to solve it?” Kaito asked, something uncertain and…unbearably hopeful in his voice, despite it being based on almost _nothing._ Hell, _less_ than nothing. There was no way this project was anything more than Kokichi going out of his way to waste Kaito’s time and energy. The fact that Kaito was indulging him was… really stupid, on his part. He should be… he didn’t know.

Trying to find someone else willing to touch him?

…ugh…

But, even if he decided not to do that with his day, to just accept going back to the chair tonight and do something else with his time… it wasn’t like he had had any time to… to even consider getting himself out of this situation. His brain usually felt scrambled after the first few days in the chair, and he was so overwhelmed with dread and, frankly, just plain old over-stimulus when he was out of the chair that trying to stop Fake-Tsumugi was little more than an idle pipe dream. He was barely coping with just _existing_ right now, let alone working on a way to fight back.

The idea that someone- _anyone-_ was working on the problem was… more hope than he had had in a month.

Not that Kokichi’s answer filled him with confidence as he shrugged idly in response, before saying, “As much as I can, in a totally fucked situation like this. Spoiler alert, Kaito: our best options are still killing ourselves.”

“Don’t say things like that.”

“Don’t call me slut, don’t call me hero, don’t say suicide is our only option!” Kokichi mocked, sticking his tongue out at the taller man as he sneered, “You’re such a _baby_. It’s impossible to please you.”

“You sound like Miu.”

“Ew, really? I need to get better material if I’m repeating that dumb whores bits. Hey, hey! That big ol’ welt on your face! Did you ask her for that? Is that your ‘thing’?”

“…no.” Kaito murmured. “It’s not my thing. That’s her thing. I didn’t like it.”

“Then why’d you let her do it? You’re six foot with muscles like stone, don’t tell me she overpowered you.” Kokichi rolled his eyes.

“…I hate this.” Kaito realized.

Kokichi just sighed, not looking back at Kaito. The two just walking back to the school as Kaito, after a moment, said through gritted, hissing teeth, “ _I hate this_. I hate it. I hate it _so fucking_ _much_. I didn’t want to touch you, and I didn’t want to touch Miu, and I d-don’t want to…I don’t want to _do this anymore_ …”

Kokichi still didn’t look back. By the end of his small, frustrated tantrum, Kaito’s voice had gotten tight. Shaky. Kokichi suspected that if he looked back at Kaito, the taller man would be less than composed.

“…yeah. Well.” Kokichi put his hands behind his head, sighing softly as he said, “I doubt it’ll ever matter what you want. Sucks for you, huh.”

“…you’re such an asshole. I don’t know why I’m trying to talk to you.”

Probably, if Kokichi had to guess, it was because out of this whole school, Kokichi was the only other ‘real’ person here… by certain standards anyway. Standards that would only matter to Kaito and Kokichi, as they were right now.

And… if he was being honest? At least to himself? That was why Kokichi was being so open to talking to Kaito, as well.

It had been almost a month for Kokichi of this shit too, even if most of it had been fast forwarded in a whirlwind of activity. Kokichi wasn’t exactly fucking elated by all this either… it wasn’t like he wasn’t starting to feel the stress of the isolation. Of being literally unable to talk to anyone about anything that mattered. Of being the only ‘real’ person around.

And maybe that was why he felt a small slump of disappointment when he heard Kaito suddenly stop walking. Sighing, Kokichi stopped as well, looking back at Kaito, who’s eyes were indeed staining red, staring in fury at the ground. “Come on, Kaito, we’re not done with my experiment. There’s still plenty more kitchen to move to the elevator.”

“Fuck you. You just want to convince me to stay so you can keep saying shitty things to me.” Kaito accused him, furious magenta eyes looking up at Kokichi.

“I’m trying to help you, Kaito.” Kokichi said.

“Fucking _liar_ … don’t know why I put up with this for so long. Wasted my whole fucking morning on this.” Kaito realized, throwing the potato sack on the ground, storming off as he grumbled, “ _Fuck this_.”

“Kaito! Hey! Kaitooo! I told you, this is too help! This could help both of us!! …fine! Go have fun with your rape challenge, you **_idiot!_** ” Kokichi screamed at his back, scowling as Kaito just gave him the finger before turning the hall, disappearing. “ _Fuck_ … god _damn it_.”

“It wasn’t gonna work anyway.” Monokuma said behind Kokichi, who just tensed a moment, before scoffing.

“Sure. You would say that.” Kokichi said, looking frustrated, before his face went 180, beaming at Monokuma as he said, “Maybe I should consider you trying to deter me a step in the right direction? Huh? Huh? Am I on the right track?? Are you running scared yet!?”

“Why would I be scared? I don’t have a bet in this race.” Monokuma said, giving Kokichi a curious look. “Play the game. Break the game. The fuck should I care? I’m just a bear.”

“You don’t care? Oh, really? But you’re being controlled by the players, aren’t you?” Kokichi asked, the question genuinely curious, and openly suspicious. “Certainly your goal is theirs?”

Monokuma snickered at that. “I love how you say that. ‘You’re being controlled by the players’. Like you and I are something _different_ …”

Kokichi stared blankly at Monokuma, absorbing that… before dropping his own potato sack where he stood, putting his hands behind his head as he sighed, “I’m bored with this idea. I’m not doing it anymore. You made my day _boring_ , Monokuma.”

“Awwww, I’m so sorry… but just so you know, Kokichi!” Monokuma called after him. “It really wouldn’t have worked.”

“Whatever.” Kokichi muttered.


End file.
